Bloodline part I
by Tobbs
Summary: The first part of the Mass Effect trilogy Bloodline. The collectors are destroyed, but the quest is not over for commander Shepard and Tali'Zorah. They need to unite the galaxy against the reaper armada, but it seems to go to hell from the very start.
1. Prologue

**This chapter has been re-written since I was generally displeased with it's content.**

"Don't turn your back on me Shepard!" The Illusive Man shouted furiously at the hologram of the commander in front of him, anger burning in his synthetic eyes. "I made you, I brought you back from the dead!"

Shepard shook his head. "_I don't have time for this bullshit." _he thought. He turned to the ceiling. "Joker, loose this channel."he ordered the helmsman, and the hologram faded out, and the commander found himself standing alone in the comm room once more. He didn't know why, but his mind wandered back to what had happened merely hours ago during their suicide run on the collectors.

_The floor shook violently as the reaperlarvae exploded in a sea of flames. Shepard's M-920 Cain had proven quite useful against the abomination of flesh and metal. The platform they where standing on flew out of place by the explosion, sending it across the large chamber at a random. Shepard just managed to turn his head to see another platform flying into theirs. No pain, no sound – just a window in his memory._

The commander tries to remember the rest, but only finds short moments in the blur.

_Shepard is running for the ship, Garrus on his right side and Tali on his left. He can hear Harbinger going on about the usual with words as "salvation" and "genetic destiny", but he couldn't bother with that now. Getting of that station alive was of higher priority._

_He sees Tali wrestling with a collector - the insectoid creature gaining the upper hand. Instead of risking taking a shot that could hit Tali, Shepard runs towards the collector after blowing a hole in another's chest with a shotgun, pulling his knife on the way. He kicks the alien in it's shin, then put his left arm under it's chin and he pulls back, exposing the fleshy neck. The beast makes a guttural sound as the cold metal slits through his flesh and white-like gore splashes all over Tali's enviro-suit. She looks at Shepard, apparently quite annoyed. "Sorry..." Shepard utters, a little embarrassed to have just gored-down his newly found girlfriend. _

"_Come on you two! We have to go!" they hear Garrus shout. They both look in the direction it came from and see the turian standing a few yards away from them, unleashing a hail of bullets into another enemy with his Vindicator battle rifle._

Shepard quickly comes out of his memories, realizing that he had to focus on now. On how to prepare the galaxy for the oncoming reaper fleet without having the slightest idea how to. He exited the comm room to get to the galaxy map in the CIC to get a better overview of his situation. On his way he walked past Tali in the armory.

Tali was sitting on a small table that shot out of the wall, where most of the guns lied when not in use, watching the commander as he went into the CIC. Without fully realizing it, she let out a loud, long, loving sigh. Jacob, who was also in the armory, working on his terminal, stopped in mid-work and looked at the door which had just closed behind Shepard and then at Tali who was behind him. "Now that sounded more than just boredom."he said with a smirk, which made the quarian freeze in her place. "You're into something, aren't you?"

Tali felt her cheeks heat up from embarrassment. "No...I mean...I just..."she stuttered. "Oh Keelah..."she breathed out. She wanted to keep the relationship between her and Shepard a secret. At least for now. "Please, don't tell the rest of the crew. We..."

"Tell them what? After all, you haven't told me anything."Jacob cut her off with a grin The quarian smiled under her helmet, certain that Jacob wouldn't tell anyone. He seemed very trustworthy for a Cerberus. Maybe she could keep it a secret from the crew after all. Well, most of the crew.

She nodded at the ex-cerberus agent. "Thanks...Jacob" she realized she had never called him by his name before. Actually, she had only spoken with him twice before. First when she first arrived at the new Normandy, and another time when there was some mechanical fault for the console that he was not being able to even locate. Of course, Tali had both found and fixed the problem in a shorter time than it had taken for Jacob to even realize that something was wrong in the first place.

She looked at the human, who had now turned around to continue to work on the terminal, and noticed his significantly darker skin-color, which she hadn't really given much thought of before. She found herself curious of it and at the same time, she thought of it as a good way to keep the conversation going. "Jacob?" she asked.

Jacob turned around. "Yes?"he asked, his fingers never leaving the console.

Tali hesitated a moment, but she was curious to know. "Why is your skin so much darker than of anyone else on the ship?"she asked curiously, yet reluctantly. You don't ask such personal questions in the Migrant Fleet, she knew that. But her curiosity had gained the upper hand.

The man crossed his arms and another smile showed up on his face. "Heh...well I guess I would get that question eventually."he snickered. "Well, my ancestors come from a continent on Earth call Africa."he explained. "Nature found it helpful to give us a darker skin in a land where the temperature could reach above a-hundred-and-thirty degrees."He shrugged "To protect from the sun, you know."he added.

The quarian took a moment to think about what she had just been told, and then continued. "Did you come from this 'Africa'?she asked, hungry for more answers; according to Shala'Raan, she always has been.

"No." Jacob replied quickly. His smile had faded away, but he didn't seem very upset. "Although I was born on Earth, it was on another continent."he explained, but it just arouse more confusion in the young quarian.

Tali shifted her position on the table uncomfortably. "_Why would they be on another continent, when their place was obviously this 'Africa?'"_she asked herself. "Why where you not in your homeland?"the young woman asked.

"Well..." Jacob started with a shrug, but was cut off by Jokers voice over the intercom. "Aye, aye commander. Setting course for Illium. ETA, ten hours. All crew, get back to your stations. Or no cornbread at dinner tonight."

Jacob grunted lightly. "Hm...looks like we have to finish this another time." He nodded at her in the way he always seems to do and turned back to his console.

"Yes...of course..."Tali sighed, thinking that it probably couldn't have came more untimely. She jumped down from the table and went for the elevator down to engineering.

Shepard walked into the CIC and stood over the galaxy map. He looked at the haze of endless stars and thought of his current objectives. Though it was hard to concentrate with the sea of little lights glistening in front of him. He regained focus though, and could feel the brainstorm coming.

He knew there was no way to get the council on his side without solid evidence of that the reapers even exists, which rules out the turians, the salarians and the asari from the list. At least for now.

That leaves the quarians, the now rewritten geth, the batarians, the krogan, which is not an option until Wrex has managed to unite them; a difficult cause when dealing with testosterone war tanks like the krogan.

Then of course, there was the mercenary bands. The three major groups, the Blood Pack, Eclipse and Blue Suns bands. Then there was also the the lesser ones, like the Juggernaut, Black Rose and Cresto groups. The question was: how was Shepard supposed to get on his side the ones that had hated him along every step on the way. Only a week ago, he had experienced an assassination attempt from the Cresto mercenary band. It had ended with Tali blowing the head off of their leader. They probably already have a new one though. "A new one..."the human said to himself. "A new leader means an opportunity. If he doesn't hate me personally, then it will be much easier to get them on my side."he thought. He heard the improbability in the plan as soon as he spoke it, but it was certainly worth a shot. He wouldn't be where he was today if he hadn't taken certain risks.

The Cresto did not classify as a major merc group, but they where still quite impressive. Shepard knew that he would need everyone united to survive against the reaper armada. He must start somewhere. Why not with the Cresto? Liara T'soni should know a way to get to them. "Joker. Set a course for Illium." he said, looking up in the ceiling, as if he was talking to it.

"Aye, aye commander. Setting course for Illium. ETA ten hours. All crew, get back to your stations. Or no cornbread to dinner tonight."the pilot responded, with a hint of his own humor in the last sentence. Joker was the only one who didn't know only he thought he was funny.

Shepard leaned at the rail in front of him. EDI appeared next to him. "According to my calculations, the probability of us rounding up enough force until my estimated time of the reaper's arrival – which is in about two years – is at nine point three percent, Shepard. Whatever you are planning, I want you to know what we're up against."

"EDI, nine point three percent is good odds for us."Shepard stated while still looking at the galaxy map "And as Julius Caesar said – alea acta est. We have to take our chances." The commander turned to the blue hologram to his side. "It's time for the end of the beginning."


	2. Chapter 1:Fear of Loss

As Shepard leaned on the rail, overlooking the galaxy map, he heard the sound of footsteps behind him. He turned around and saw Tali disappear behind the elevator doors. He smiled and walked over to the closed elevator and pushed the button. After a little while the doors opened and he stepped in and pressed the button to engineering.

He stepped out of the elevator and into the corridor. Shepard walked to the right, where he could approach Tali from behind. Before he could press the holo-pad, the door opened and Grunt walked out, past Shepard. The krogan did not look at the human that was in front of him and, judging from the angry look on his face, Shepard concluded that he was in his own thoughts. But what had he been doing in the engine room?

Shepard shrugged and walked through the next door, careful not to make too much sound. He had always found it quite amusing of startling Tali a little bit. He had done it back on the original Normandy even. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes not.

He took a little time to look at the view of the beautiful quarian in front of him. He scanned her with his eyes, starting from the beautiful veil resting on her helmet, to the shoulders, which moved nonstop as the young woman went through menu after menu with her three fingered hands to keep the ship going. He looked down to the curves on her sides and the hips, (or "dem hips" as Donnely liked to call it) and to the typical curved legs of the quarians. His mind wandered back to the night before...

_He was standing in his quarters, holding a holo-pad with results data of the ships performance over the past week. Suddenly he heard Tali's nervous voice: "So...I've taken some antibiotics as well as...some herbal supplements that should bolster my immune system..." she walked closer to the commander and put his holo-pad on the table as she continued to speak; even more nervous. "I was going to bring music...but I didn't know what you'd like...and I'm babbling like an idiot..." she tilted her head down as she said the last part. _

_Shepard looked at her. He had always found that nervousness of hers cute. He placed a hand on her side. "It's okay. Come here." he said with a soft voice. Tali looked up at him and guided him to the bed, continuing to talk. "I just don't want to...I want this to work. I've minimized the risks but I'm still nervous..." they where now sitting on the bed, holding each others hands, "...and that always makes me talk to much, it's a defense mechanism and it's stupid and people who..." Shepard now stretched out his hands towards her faceplate as she talked nonstop "...who just see the helmet can't see my expressions so I have to make it clear what I'm..." he removed her faceplate and looked at the beautiful face that had been hidden underneath for all this time. He smiled "...what I'm...feeling..." _

_Tali stopped, probably calmed by the fact that Shepard was smiling while seeing her face. She suddenly pounced on him sending him down into the bed; Tali passionately kissing him. The taste and feeling of her tongue in his mouth felt so much better and realer than it had with anyone else he had ever done it with._

_She pushed away from him and they looked each other in the eyes. She pulled her hood down, uncovering the rest of the helmet. She slowly opened some seals and removed the lower part of her mask that covers the chin. She moved her hand to another part of the helmet and released a couple of more seals and removed the rest of the helmet, exposing the back of her head. They sat up and Tali began to loosen the straps around her chest and stomach. She took off the harness of straps and threw it at the floor among the pieces of her helmet._

_She got off the bed; Shepard following her closely. "Can I help?" Shepard asked, though he already knew the answer. Tali looked at him with a smile and blushed. "Sure..."she giggled "...you take off the boots and I'll take the gloves. Shepard leaned down to remove the straps that kept the shinguard in place and Tali began to take off the pouches on her upper arm, before taking of the gloves that goes halfway up the upper arm. In his attempts to take off the shinguard, Shepard had discovered how tight the straps where. He couldn't even get a finger under one. "Jesus Christ Tali, do they really have to sit so tight?" he cried out. _

_Tali looked down at the man and smiled. "Well...they are the only thing that keeps the guard on, so it has to be tight enough to keep it steady in any situation." Shepard didn't answer. He was too busy to try to get off the shinguard. Finally, the straps started to loosen. "There we go." Shepard said relieved._

_By the time he had gotten off both shinguards Tali had already removed the pouches and gloves on both hands. She giggled over the humans clumsy fingers, despite being slightly smaller than hers. When Shepard took off the second shinguard, Tali removed her belt and took off her veil that was tied to her arms, legs and waist. _

_When Shepard was about to take off the boots he noticed that there was no border where the boots ended. Tali noticed his confused situation. "Oh...um...yeah right. They are not constructed like your boots, Shepard. They are really...um...well...the whole lower part of my suit..."she said embarrassed. Shepard realized what Tali had asked him to do when she told him to take off her "boots". He blushed. "How about I just do it instead?" she continued. Shepard looked up into her silver eyes with a meaning look; slowly sliding off the lower part of the suit as he did so. Tali saw what he was doing and blushed heavily as she suddenly stood there, naked on her lower body. _

_Shepard stood up and began to take off the upper part as well. Tali blushed even more and laid her hands on his, but she didn't try to stop him. She let she upper part slid off, exposing her stomach and breasts. She looked into his eyes and smiled. They both smiled, but it was obvious that she was embarrassed. _

_She took off his shirt and pushed him at the bed, making him fall on his back. Shortly after they where both naked on the bed; Tali laying on top of him. As she slid down, she gasped for air, like she was going to cry out at any moment. But she never did, and the hardest part was already over. _

_Time flew by as the room warmed up from their body heat and moved in a common rhythm. Though Shepard had, in opposite to Tali, done this before; like the kiss, it felt so much more real. Tali moved from her leaned-sitting position and instead lay down on him._

_He let go of her hips and wrapped his arms around her back by the waist, pressing her body against his. He suddenly felt every muscle in Tali's body tense and her breathing got faster and deeper, followed by a light moan, as it seemed to drain every last inch of energy that the quarian had left in her body. Her muscles relaxed and she laid her head on his chest. Shepard could also feel tiredness get it's grip on him and he slowly stopped. Shortly after they lay next to each other on the bed, soundly asleep._

He smiled over the memories of that night and walked up to Tali, who still hadn't noticed that he was standing behind her. He slid his arms around her stomach, which caused her to jump of surprise. He put his head on the left side next to her head. "Hey beautiful..."he said with a loving, soft voice. She giggled. "Hey Shep...John..."she wasn't used to calling him by his first name, since she had been calling him Shepard for the whole time she had known him. "Heh...was a little worried there." Shepard said silently, almost in a whisper. "Thought you might have forgotten my name."

* * *

"I would never forget your name John. Only to use it..."Tali joked. She sniffed. Despite the antibiotics and herbal supplements she had taken that night, she had still got sick by being out of her suit.

Shepard must have noticed, since he leaned forward. "You shouldn't work now when you're sick. How bad is it?" he said. "_Not too bad considering I had sex with one of another species last night."_ "Well..." she began. "I'm running a fever, I've got a nasty cough and my sinuses are filled with something I can't even describe..."she let the words sink into him for a few seconds before continuing. "...and it was totally worth it..." she whispered in his ear, smiling under the tinted glass.

"Come on up to my quarters. It's late. You're sick and probably tired. You should sleep. Besides: we're a whole ten hours from Illium."Shepard said. Tali turned around looked at him. "But I have to..."she started, but was cut off by the man in front of her. "Ken and Gabby can take care of it. Come on! You know you want to..."he said looking at her. They're eyes met and the quarian could feel she was loosing herself in the soft, blue, eyes that was looking at her. "_He knows how to persuade, that's for sure..."_she thought to herself. "Damn you Shepard..." she said silently, and followed the commander to the elevator. They stepped in and Shepard pressed the button to the captains quarters.

While they stood in the elevator, Shepard suddenly turned to the young woman beside him. "Tali?" he asked. The quarian turned to him and looked him in the eyes. "Yes, John?" Shepard seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then continued. "What was Grunt doing over there? By you I mean. He seemed quite annoyed when I met him through by the door." Tali let out a small laugh as she thought about what had happened. "Donnely asked Grunt to help him open a hatch in the core room so that he could fix a broken cable. We didn't have the necessary tools to open it, so he asked him to just rip it open." she giggled as the memories returned. "Well, when he did, he got an electric shock. He must have touched the cable somehow. Anyway, he flew a few feet and hit the wall. He quickly got up and walked away. I think his pride was more hurt than his body." Shepard laughed to himself, Tali guessing he pictured Grunt flying into the wall.

The elevator doors opened and they stepped into the quarters. On the way to the bed Tali looked at the aquarium that was built into the wall. "I think you need to buy a new fish, John..." she said and pointed at a colorful animal that was floating upside-down in the water. Shepard looked at the dead fish. "Not again..." he sighed. This was the fourth time that his fish had died. Something as simple as feeding a fish had proven quite challenging to remember with the commander-role taking up must of the time. "Well at least we're going to Illium where I can buy a new one."he said.

As they laid in the bed; Tali laying on her side with her head on Shepard's shoulder and her hand on his chest, she thought about the first day they met. With her getting rescued by a dashing commander from that dark alley on the Citadel. She had actually fallen in love with him the day after they met.

As she lay there on the sheets (which had now been changed since last night) the young quarian wondered if the man she was laying next to had loved her back then too. Her mind wandered through the adventures they where together. From when she saw Shepard completely tear through the thorian creature on Feros, to when they destroyed the Cerberus test lab and then Virmire, where she watched Shepard's face as Kaidan Alenko died in the explosion. And then the collectors...

As she thought over the past few years, the same question continued to show up in her head. "John?" she said with a soft, tired voice. "Yeah?" Shepard answered with the same kind of tired voice. "How did we ever come here?"she asked and looked up at him; her head never leaving his shoulder. "Well I guess we walked." he joked. Tali failed to register the joke, and instead continued to look at him. "No I mean with us." she said. "How could we ever have ended up at this situation?"

Shepard placed his hand on her shoulder and looked in her eyes. He smiled. "Fate I suppose", he said. She thought that that had to be it. How else could a young quarian girl run into a human commander who she also falls in love with, but dies before she could even tell him how she felt, only to be revived, giving her a new chance and then finding out that he feels the same thing about her? That had to be fate. Nothing else.

_Tali opened her eyes and found herself sitting against a wall with her hands and legs bound. She did not know what kind of room it was; there where no windows and the only light came from a lamp in the middle of the room. The light was so weak that some of the room was still in complete darkness. Under the lamp she saw a batarian hitting a man in the face with a stick repeatedly. She could not see the mans face, since he was sitting bound in a chair with his back turned to her, but he was clearly human. _

_The batarian hit the man in the face one last time, sending a tooth flying, before he grabbed his chin. "Where is it!" the batarian yelled, his four eyes burning with anger. Tali had no idea what the alien was talking about, but obviously it was important. The man looked up at his torturer. "Go to hell!" he said weakly. "I'm not telling you anything!" _

_Tali recognized the voice, but it sounded a little different due to missing teeth and maybe also a fractured jaw. The man received another hit, but this time by a fist which broke his nose. "You want me to blow your **fucking **head off Shepard!" Tali's fears where confirmed when she heard the name. Shepard tried to laugh, but only made a few violent coughs. "I don't think you'll shoot me. Because if you do..."he coughed up a little blood before continuing. "...because if you do, you'll never get the info you need." a smile now showed up on the batarians face. "I think we will..." he said. "...'cause we got another source" he looked at Tali and she felt an extreme grade of fear suddenly coursing through her body. _

_Like out of nowhere, a turian came and grabbed Tali and carried her to the chair where Shepard was sitting. The turian put her down on the floor on her knees. She saw Shepard's face suddenly filled with fear. "Where is it?" the batarian asked Tali as the turian put a gun on Shepard's temple. Tali panicked. "I-I-I don't know w-what you're talking about!" she stuttered. A grin grew on the batarians face. He got down on his knee and looked Tali in the eyes. "Oh I think you do know."he said; a hint of sadism glowing in his eyes. "Tell us, or your boyfriend can kiss his sorry ass goodbye." the turian pressed the gun harder onto Shepard's head"She doesn't know anything god dammit!" Shepard shouted. "Please...I don't know..." Tali pleaded, tears running down her face beneath the helmet. The batarians grin faded. He stood up and nodded to the turian. Tali looked at the turian and then at Shepard. "JOHN!" she screamed as the gun went off. _

"Shepard!"she shouted as she woke up, drenched in sweat and her heart racing. Fortunately, her audio speaker was turned off, so that something like this wouldn't wake anyone; Shepard was soundly asleep next to her. She sat up and pushed a few buttons on her omni-tool, activating the suits automatic cleaning system; an upgrade she had received from Mordin.

She thought about the dream she had just had. It had felt so real and, at the same time it seemed so unrealistic. She looked at the man that was sleeping next to her. She watched the slight movements of his chest rising and lowering. She felt her love for him slowly repair the crack in her heart she had received from the dream. The crack that had appeared by loosing him all over again, even if it was not real. She leaned back, putting her hands behind her on the mattress. She realized her mistake and quickly pulled her hands back, but it was already too late. The shift in weight was more than enough to wake a man who was always alert, even when asleep. A man like Shepard.

Shepard's eyes opened instantly and he sat up, laying his arm over Tali shoulders. "Something wrong Tali?"he said with a caring and, slightly worried voice. She shook her head; looking at her hands that where holding each other tightly, shaking. She turned on the helmet's audio. "No..."she said. "Just a bad dream." Shepard smiled and placed his other hand on hers, causing them to immediately stop shaking. "Isn't it the captain's job to have bad dreams about his life?" he joked in an attempt to get her minds elsewhere. It worked. The young quarian giggled lightly and thought about everything she ha gone through with the commander.

She looked him in the eyes and felt happiness fill her again. Those soft blue eyes seemed to have some magic ability to make her happy and calm. "Come on, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy. Let's go back to sleep." he said. She heard the light beep from her omni-tool, signaling that the cleaning was finished. She nodded at the commander and lied back down. There they laid. On the side, facing the same direction, Shepard having his arm around Tali's side, her hand on his. Tali felt all doubt and fear fading from Shepard's embrace. She smiled as she slowly slipped back into sleep.


	3. Chapter 2:If you go to hell

***Authors note: I've fixed the commented "Legion fail", so the story is no longer invalid.**

Shepard woke up and found himself in a position that had him laying on the side, hugging the sleeping Tali, who, in turn, was laying on her stomach, hugging her pillow. _"Well it's going to be hard not waking her up...I can't complain of the situation though; this was quite comfortable." _he thought with a smile.

As he tried to slip his arm from under her stomach, she began to silently murmur something. "_She must have forgot to turn her audio off."_ He slipped out the rest of his arm, which had gone numb by having a quarian on top of it all night, he leaned over to hear what she was saying. He could mostly hear only silent murmur, but he could hear one word: "Shepard..."she said in a silent, but loving, tone. Shepard smiled and slowly stroked the purple-tinted glass of her helmet with the upper side of his point- and middle finger.

He looked at the clock, since it was the only way to know time out in space. "_9:32 am..." _he thought, _"Good. It is morning after all."_ He sat up and itched his forehead. "Thank god for clocks..."he said silently to himself. He turned to the bedside and put his feet on the floor. He looked over his shoulder on the sleeping quarian. He watched her her chest slowly rise and lower, and at the faceplate, which had hidden the most beautiful face in the galaxy for all this time.

He smiled at the young woman that was laying in his bed. Since he had fallen asleep with his clothes on, he could simply stand up and walk to the elevator. There was still a couple of hours until they would be at Illium, so he decided to get to the crew deck to get some breakfast. He pressed the button for the third floor and hoped to god that Gardner had actually made something this time that would classify as food.

Shepard stepped out of the elevator and walked into the mess hall where he walked past Dr. Chakwas who had just exited the med bay. He sat down at the table where Garrus was talking to one of the navigators. As if he had waited for Shepard to arrive, Gardner almost immediately puts down a smoking bowl of brown soup. "What's this Rupert?"Shepard asked, suspicious over the fact that it looked edible. The chef smiled. "Oh, you'll see." he said. Shepard never really liked it when he said that.

Garrus leaned over to Shepard after Rupert had walked away. "Careful Shepard, the supplies have run low."he whispered. That was always a bad thing. Low supplies meant low quantity of ingredients. Low quantity of ingredients meant improvisation of ingredients. Improvisation of ingredients meant a high probability that it would taste like shit.

He shrugged and filled his spoon with the unknown liquid and put it in his mouth. He could taste a mixture of chicken and ginger, plus something else that he couldn't recognize. The old familiar taste of sweat came after a few seconds. He let out a short grunt as he swallowed. "Congratulations Gardner!"he shouted. "It classifies as food!" Gardner leaned around the corner with a wondering look on his face. "So you like it?"he asked; a hint of hope in his voice. Shepard shook his head. "Nope. It classifies as food but it still taste like ass." he said, stirring around his spoon in the so called "soup". "Yeah well..."the chef started. "At least we're going to Illium where we can buy new ingredients. Then I can really make something that..."he was cut off by Shepard. "...that doesn't taste like ass?" the commander said mockingly. Gardner shrugged. "Yeah I guess."

"So Garrus, what do you know about these guys we're going to?" Shepard asked the turian in front of him. "Of the Cresto?" Garrus asked. "They're the fifth most powerful merc band, they're armor is dark green with a white, tribal version of the human letter "c" on them and they consist of mostly of humans, batarians and turians. But they've got members from nearly all the species. There's not really much more to know about them." he said.

"Commander?" Miranda said as she walked over to the table. Shepard looked up at the woman who was now standing by him. "Yes?" Miranda sat down next to Garrus and continued. "Have you seen Tali anywhere? She's not down in engineering." Shepard felt his heart stop. "_Oh shit! I can't tell them that she's up sleeping in my bed! Not without telling them the whole story!"_he felt he was going to panic.

He collected his thoughts, tried to figure out a way to not search the ship. If he said that he didn't know where she where, they would probably search the whole ship until there was only the captains quarters left. If he said that she was up there doing something different than she was really doing, he would not have to show them the quarters and he could say that he would check on her and, when he's up there, wake her up and take her back down. They would think that she was just done with what she was doing. "_But what should I say that she's doing?"_he asked himself.

He made up his mind and looked at Miranda. "She's up in my quarters. There's something wrong with my terminal and I don't know anything about computers, so I asked if she could help me. Actually, now that you mention it, I'll check how she's doing." he said and stood up and walked towards the elevator. He stepped in and pressed captains quarters. "_Let's just hope the believed me."_he thought.

* * *

As they heard the elevator doors close, Garrus and Miranda looked at each other. Miranda shook her head. "Tali never showed up by the sleeping pods; and when you ask Shepard where she is, he seems to turn to ice." she says to Garrus "He says something quick and nervously and then he quickly go to "check on her". Wrong on the terminal my ass." she looked over to the corner that Shepard had just disappeared behind.

Garrus looks at the same direction. "You're right..:"he says. "I don't buy it. The fact that Tali always had a crush on Shepard doesn't make the thing better." Miranda looked at the turian next to her. "You don't think they're..."she said, unable to finish the sentence. Garrus shrugged. "I don't know."he said. "It's worth checking out. Not now though." he speared a red tentacle that laid on a plate in front of him with a fork and held it up in front of his face. "Now is breakfast time."

* * *

As they approached Nos Astra, the capital of Illium, Shepard noticed that he had received an answer for his message to Liara:

"Shepard, you sent me a message about finding the Cresto mercenary group. I cannot meet you in person on that matter. I have a contact in Eternity. Her name is Minara. She will recognize you and tell you to come to her. You will receive information on how to find the Cresto's nest.

Be careful; my sources tell me that the Cresto have connections to the Blue Suns mercenary band. There is also a risk that their new leader, a batarian named Sayo' Ganackk, may have the same hostile stance as the the man he has replaced. Do not go in without weapons and backup.

-Liara"

Shepard looked at the message and what he had to deal with. "_This might be a little more complicated than I thought."_

The Normandy approached the docking cradle. As the docking clamps began to lock the ship in it's place, Shepard pressed the intercom. "Tali, Grunt, get up to the CIC." he said and released the button. Shortly after, Grunt and Tali came out of the elevator.

"Why are we coming with you?"Grunt asked "Aren't we just gonna get some info?" Shepard turned around and looked at the krogan. "Because we don't know where the Cresto are. They might just be on Illium, and if anything goes wrong, I'm taking you for some extra muscle to punch us out and Tali in case they got any mechs." he said. Grunt looked at Tali, then back at Shepard and nodded. The doors opened and they stepped out. They walked the streets of Nos Astra, past the shopping kiosks and past Liara's office. It was in the middle of the night and there was only a few people out, on of them was a drunk turian that stumbled around with a bottle in hand. They walked through the door into the bar called Eternity.

Shepard saw a purple asari standing leaned against a wall, arms crossed, head tilted down. She looked up and waved him towards her. Shepard walked over to the woman that also took a step toward him. "Are you Minara?" he said as he shook her hand. She nodded. "Yes."she said with a calm voice. "My employer told me that you need a way to the Cresto compound." Shepard nodded. "Yes. I need to find them. I need to talk to their leader." he said. "Are they here on Illium?"

The asari looked around, as if she was checking that nobody else could hear. "Yes they are on Illium. They are in fact even in Nos Astra."she said quietly. "We have already contacted them. They have agreed to meet you in a warehouse on these coordinates." she gave him a datapad. "Take a shuttle and feed in this data. It will take you to where you need to go." she said and walked away. Shepard looked at the datapad and turned to his crew.

"So, what do you think?"he asked them both. Grunt was the first to speak. "Hrm...a warehouse...perfect place for an ambush."he said. "Agreed." Tali said. "We should have some sniper support with us. Maybe if we bring Legion..." Shepard cut her off. "No. We need our sniper to make it in unnoticed; metal feet and flashlight heads are not very discreet. We'll take Thane. He's an expert at infiltration." he looked at the two. First Tali, then Grunt. "They'll never see it coming."the krogan laughed as he punched his fists together. "Grunt. It's not even certain that we'll **have** to fight."Tali said in an effort to calm down the exited krogan. "We're just backup."

They got to the transport hubs and Shepard and Tali sat down in the front, while Grunt and Thane got in the back. Tali punched in the coordinates into the shuttles computer and they took off as it got into auto drive. Shepard looked at Tali, which responded his glance. They looked each other in the eyes as Shepard began to go through the plan. "Let's go over this again. Grunt..."he said and looked at the krogan that sat to the right behind Tali, "You and Tali..." he looked at Tali again. "...are coming with me in to the warehouse. Thane..." he said and looked back at the assassin behind him. "You get in unnoticed and get to a vantage point where you can provide sniper support." The drell nodded at the commander as they closed in on the warehouse.

Shepard looked at the structure in front of him. The warehouse looked more like a hangar considering it's size, shape and size of the doors. There where windows on the top "floor" of the warehouse. There was probably a catwalk there. A catwalk that anyone could hide on top of, with a perfect view over the area below. They had only watched the building for a few seconds before Thane reported that he had already found a way in.

As the shuttle landed in front of the warehouse, they stepped out and Thane immediately walked towards a place somewhere in the shadows. Before they even got to the large door to the ware house, Thane could be heard on the radio. "I'm in position. They seem to have cleared the room of cargo. It's completely empty." he said. "Did you see if there where anyone on the catwalk?" Shepard asked. "No"Thane answered. "No as in there are none or no as in you didn't see?"Shepard said. "I didn't see..."the assassins voice answered over the radio. They walked into the warehouse. Like Thane had told them, the room was completely empty of cargo. The only cover they would have was some pillars under the catwalks that held up the ceiling.

As they stood in the middle of the room, a human walked through a door on the other side of the room. This human didn't have the dark green color or emblem of the Cresto. Instead, his armor was blue, with a white emblem of a sun. "_Blue suns!"_Shepard thought. "What the hell is this!"he shouted. "Where's Ganackk!" The mercenary laughed. "Change in plans...Shepard..."the man stretched out his arms to the walls and the catwalks was suddenly filled with mercenaries. "_Good thing we brought Thane..."_Shepard thought. "So Shepard..."the man in front of him laughed. "Do you want to do this the easy way, or..." a bullet in the back of his head stopped him from finishing sentence, putting a large hole through his forehead.

Shepard, Tali and Grunt ran for cover as the walls of assault rifles opened fire. Confusion began to spread however, as an invisible shooter began picking off their ranks. This chaos allowed the three to take cover behind each pillar at the end of the warehouse. Each wall was around a hundred meters long; the catwalks running the length of it on each side.

Shepard realized that they're ammo wouldn't be enough, despite Thane's sniper support, since each catwalk above them was filled with probably a-hundred-and-thirty mercs. Good thing Shepard brought his M-920 Cain. He put his assault rifle on his back and pulled off his "mini-nuke gun". He looked at the weapon and what he saw on the power meter made him lose his breath. It said "Power:97%"

"I notice you are looking at your M-920." Thane suddenly said over the radio, as if he knew what the problem was right away. "There are some boxes of power cells in the room where the first man walked out from. Run, I'll cover you."he said as another scream of agony could be heard together with the sound of a gunshot. Shepard did as instructed and ran between the pillars towards the said door. The few bullets that hit him was no match for his shield to absorb.

He got to the door and switched back to his assault rifle and took cover by the side of the door while Tali stood by the other side of it. They left Grunt back where they where before to keep them busy. That way they couldn't push forward and eventually overrun them. Shepard opened the door. Immediately, a hailstorm of bullets was unleashed from within the room behind the door. They could not see how many they where in there but, judging from the amount of bullets hailing out, Shepard guessed there where around a dozen. Shepard nodded at Tali, who opened up her omni-tool and released Chiktikka.

While the mercs where busy shooting at the flying drone that kept zapping them, Shepard tossed in a grenade. The grenade went off and the hailstorm suddenly stopped. Shepard went in, his rifle held high, ready to fire. A single survivor from the explosion, a batarian, tried to get on his feet, only to be shot down by Shepard. He switched to his M-920 and picked up one of the power cells that where scattered over the floor and put it in the weapon, charging it up to a hundred percent.

Shepard ran back the way they came, to where Grunt was still holding out. Shepard took cover behind his original pillar and looked at Grunt who was right in front of him. They nodded at each other and the human got out of his cover, Grunt and Tali providing covering fire. The Cain began charging up and, after a few seconds, it launched a red glowing projectile that blew up in a mushroom-cloud in the middle of the group of blue suns, killing anyone that they hadn't shot before and taking a big piece of both catwalk and wall with it. Shepard smiled at the results, but they still had another catwalk left.

Another gunshot from a sniper rifle could be heard as a turian fell over the rail and down on the floor in front of them. The dead man on the floor had bags of explosives around his waist, giving Tali an idea. She grabbed the turians arm and dragged him under the catwalk. She loosened the mercenaries belt and took it off. "Tali, what are you doing!"she looked up and saw Shepard looking at her. "I've got and idea!"she shouted, trying to make herself heard over the sea of gunfire that arrived along with blue suns reinforcements. She looked at the turian on the floor. The bullet had pierced through his right jaw muscle and continued through the back of his head, taking his right eye with it and making his right mandible hang loosely on the damaged muscle. "_Should never have left Palaven, turian..._"she thought as she rose up. She looked inside the bags and found that there was more than enough explosives to do what she had intended. They wouldn't even need to use their own charges. "Well at least **something **is in our favor today..."she said to herself with satisfaction.

"Shepard!", the commander heard Tali shout. He turned to his right where Tali was standing with the two bags of explosives that previously had belonged to one of the mercenaries. She threw a bag at him and nodded at the pillar in front of him. He looked at the pillar and then back and Tali and smiled. "This woman is a genius!" he thought as he opened the bag and began to plant small charges on the pillar; Tali doing the same on another.

He planted a charge and then looked at Tali. She looked at him and held up all her fingers. "_Three..."_he thought as he began to plant the other two. When he was done, he ran to the pillar next to him and repeated the process. Soon all the center pillars where packed with small bombs. They shot the remaining blue suns on ground level and ran for the door. Grunt turned to Shepard as he saw him in the corner of his eye. He simultaneously saw all the bombs on the pillars and laughed as they ran for the door. "That's a nice one Shepard!"he shouted. "Tali's idea!"Shepard shouted back to the krogan. He activated the radio. "Thane! Get outta there!"he shouted as the gunfire blazed throughout the warehouse. "I'm already out." he got in response. "_Of course..." _

As they got out of the door the charges exploded, making the roof crash down on anyone in there. They ran for the shuttle, killing anyone who tried to stop them. Thane joined them as they reached the shuttle and got in. As the shuttle took off they breathed out. "Wow, that was...shit!" was all Shepard was capable of saying for the moment. They looked at each other and began to laugh. "That was some crazy shit!" Grunt laughed. As they continued to laugh, an explosion hit the shuttle, sending it crashing down in the ground. Shepard crawled out shortly after. He saw that Grunt was laying on the ground next to him and Thane was already standing up. He stood up and helped Tali who was stuck under some debris.

"What the hell just happened!"he shouted,like he was trying to make himself heard over the loud ringing in his ears. Thane turned around and looked at the commander. "I believe we where just hit by a rocket. Obviously they did not want us to leave." the drell said. "It looks like this "crazy night" isn't over yet." Tali stood up. "Maybe we can find another shuttle at the Cresto base. It can't be far from here." Shepard turned to her. "Why are you so sure?"he asked. The quarian shrugged. "Well maybe because there is a Cresto patrol coming this way."she said and pointed at two humans in dark green armor coming their way. "If we can't find a shuttle, maybe we can find a radio to signal the Normandy...one that works out here."

Shepard looked at the patrol coming their way. "This is going to be a long night."he thought to himself as he pulled his revenant assault rifle.


	4. Chapter 3:You better walk it through

Shepard and Thane looked at each other. They nodded as if they read each others thoughts and pulled their sniper rifles. They aimed at the two Cresto mercenaries, who hadn't even noticed them yet. Thane counted down from three and they both fired at the same time, digging a hole in the skull of each mercenary.

Shepard switched back to his assault rifle and Thane to his SMG. Grunt pulled his specially designed Claymore shotgun, while Tali pulled two pistols from her sides. Shepard looked at the quarian and raised his eyebrow. "Aren't you going to use your shotgun?"he asked. "Nah..."Tali said as she spun the pistols on her fingers. "I feel for going a little akimbo this time." Shepard chuckled at her choice of words. "Well then, let's move out."

They where not on a street, that's for sure. It looked like they had crashed in an alley, which Shepard guessed led straight to the compound. Although they where a bit away from the warehouse where they had just fought themselves out, they where still in the factory district. Still deep within Cresto territory.

Suddenly they saw a large building at the end of the alley. There was practically an army of Cresto guarding the big, black door and large dark green banners where hanging on each side of it. All in all: not very discreet. They took cover behind some boxes that was by the walls at the end of the alley. They where only about twenty to thirty meters away from the building.

Shepard looked at the guards and was shocked to see that one of them was a quarian. His veil was dark green and the suit itself was white. His faceplate was light green and seemed armored, maybe even bulletproof. On his chest and shoulders he wore a big, white, tribal "c". He was holding an assault rifle in his hands and walked back and fourth in front of the door.

Shepard looked at Tali who seemed to not have noticed the singularity. "Tali?" he said, gaining the attention of the quarian. "Why is a quarian among the mercenaries?"he asked. "What?"Tali said with shock in her voice. The whole crew was now looking at the human with questioning eyes. Shepard pointed to where the quarian merc was. "Over there by the door. The one walking back and fourth in front of it." they concentrated their eyes and after a few seconds, Tali saw him. "Keelah..."she said. "He is a quarian!" Shepard looked at the guard, then back at their own quarian. "Don't you all live on the flotilla? Why would one of your people join a mercenary gang?"

Tali looked at the quarian guard, then back at Shepard. "He must be what my people call a Kav'e-Theil." Shepard looked at Tali with confusion. "A what?" he said. Tali looked back at the guard post. "It means "lost descendant".You remember that I said that an exile's children are welcomed back to the fleet? Well some choose not to. Maybe because they believe they can help people more somewhere else. Maybe to become a merc, like this one seem to have done. They can go on like that for generations, without ever returning." Shepard looked at her. "A quarian merc?"he said in disbelief. Tali looked back at him. "We're not perfect Shepard!"she said. "Like all species, we have our villains and saints. We too have criminals, mercs, assassins and simple bosh'tets."

Before she was able to continue she was interrupted by Grunt. "Are we gonna get in or what?" Tali calmed down as she realized that they still had to get into the base, likely meaning they would have to kill all the guards outside.

"There are too many of them to just open fire."she said. "We need a distraction." she saw Shepard immediately falling into thoughts; trying to figure out a plan that would not get them slaughtered. He looked around the Cresto compound for a few minutes. When he finally came to words he said, "Tali, hack that mech over there, but disengage the targeting system."he pointed at a YMIR mech that was standing in an open garage; built into the compound. "Thane, you go plant an explosive on the fuel tank over there..."he said and pointed at a large tank that was standing to the right of the building. "...then get into sniping position over there." he pointed at a building, about four story's high, not far from the fuel tank. "You should get clear shots from the roof." Thane nodded and quickly disappeared, while Tali was going through on of the many menus that was required to get through the mech's firewall. "I'm in."she said and disabled the mechs targeting system, making it unable to see anyone as hostile.

A few minutes later Thane reported that he had planted the charges and was in place on the roof. "Do it..."Shepard said through the radio. Tali looked at him as he turned to, and nodded at her. She nodded, opened her omni-tool and activated the targeting systems. As the fuel tank suddenly exploded, the mech started to unleash a hail of bullets on the guards. As confusion spread, Tali, Shepard and Grunt rose from where hiding and opened fire at the mercs.

Tali sometimes looked after the quarian guard to see what he was doing. When she saw him one time, a salarian had apparently got gored near him and splattered his dark green blood on him. The quarian merc screamed as he was blasted away by the explosion of a rocket. She then stopped searching for him, since she assumed he was dead, and turned her attention to the rest of the mercs.

Although they pretty soon lost their mech to a pulse grenade, they quickly wiped out all the guards. Shortly Thane once again joined them as they walked towards the large door to the base. Tali heard a cough with a mix of pain and weakness. She turned her head to where it came from and saw the quarian guard trying to get up, but to no avail. As she walked towards him, he slowly turned around and lied down on his back, facing Tali. His faceplate had received a web of cracks from the explosion but there was no piece missing that could let in any bacteria.

When she got closer to him, she raised one of her pistols and pointed it at his face. She hesitated about shooting a quarian; something she had never thought she would do. "Yeah come on! Shoot me!"the quarian shouted with a cocky voice. She heard on his voice that he would maybe not even be old enough to go out on pilgrimage, which made her hesitate further. "_This is no man. He's just a boy!"_ The mercenary laughed. "What? You can't shoot me? Huh,bitch?"he said, using a vulgarity Tali had only heard humans say before. The mercenary laughed more. "Well that's OK, 'cause I can shoot you!"as he raised a pistol, Tali instinctively fired, shattering the mercs faceplate and spraying red blood at the ground behind him.

She walked to the body and looked at the quarians helmet. She had hit him in the right part of the forehead, making a crack in the visor that exposed some of the forehead, his right eye, and about half his nose. The silver-colored eye stared blindly into the air, while the blood ran down the pale, lavender-colored face. Tali sighed and walked over to Shepard who was waiting for her; stepping on a piece of light green glass on her way.

They walked the red-glowing corridors of the compound, systematically clearing any room they found. They occasionally found more quarian mercs like the one outside. There where no dramatic execution like that one though. They encountered light resistance, since they had not yet managed to organize any particular force.

Eventually they entered a large garage where the bullets rained down on them as soon as they opened the door. Tali summoned Chiktikka, which gave them a few seconds to run in and take cover by some crates that reached to around half-way up Shepard's stomach. Shepard stood up and fired a few rounds that hit another quarian that was around ten meters away from them in the head, throwing her off her feet, but nothing else. Shepard remembered that it took an explosion to just crack the faceplate of the guard outside.

Ge got back down behind cover. "Aim for the chest of the quarians! They're faceplates are bulletproof!"he shouted into the radio, so that Grunt and Thane who was at another pack of crates, and Tali, that was taking cover next to him, could hear. When Shepard got up from cover the second time, he saw the quarian woman that he had shot before get gored by a shot from Grunts Claymore heavy shotgun.

He shot a few rounds that hit a batarian in the chest, killing him instantly. He then threw a grenade that blew the legs off of a salarian and killed a human and an asari that was next to him with the shockwave. The Cresto where made of mostly batarians, turians and salarians, but he could also see asari, humans and a few quarians and drell. Shepard threw another grenade that cleared a large group of enemies and got back behind cover; his back against the crate.

Suddenly an asari vanguard appeared in front of him. Despite the tactical move of the biotic burst, the merc could not help that Tali unleashed a burst of bullets into the her with her two Carnifex hand-cannons, spraying purple blood on the wall behind her. Shepard glanced at Tali, who responded his look, and nodded thankfully.

He got up on his knees and put his arm on the crate, holding his assault rifle, and shot bursts of bullets at the different targets. He hit, among others, a turian that had run out of ammo, and ran towards them with a knife, trying to play war hero. The turian was quickly cut down and landed face-down on the oily garage-floor. He saw a drell getting his skull split open by the round of a sniper rifle and another quarian getting mangled by Grunts shotgun. _"This is a goddamn bloodbath!"_ he thought to himself as he looked around the room that had now become a battlefield.

He fired another burst with his rifle, severing the hand of a batarian that was holding a recently-activated grenade. As the mercenary screamed in agony, the grenade went off at his feet, spraying guts and gore on a human that was standing nearby. The human screamed out, before getting picked off by Thane's Viper sniper rifle.

As Shepard was about to shoot another burst, his rifle let out nothing but a dry "click". He spew out a random vulgarity and put his assault rifle on his back, switching it for his shotgun. He slid over the crate he was taking cover behind and took cover behind another crate that was closer; Tali joining him shortly. Shepard stood up just in time to blow a hole in the chest of a drell who was dangerously close. He also took the opportunity to crack the head of a salarian with another round.

Tali got up and drained the shields of a batarian, which Thane then shot in the face. Shepard rose and shot another salarian in the chest in a cascade of green blood. In the corner of his eye, he saw someone approaching him from the left. He turned around just in time to rifle-butt a turian that held a knife, knocking him out cold. Shepard fired a round into the turians head and turned back to the massacre.

Further ahead, he saw another YMIR mech approaching. "Tali!" he shouted to the quarian. "Heavy mech!" Tali saw the large pack of metal an cybernetics and instantly began an attempt to hack it. After a minute or two, she got into the mechs systems and it began to pulverize the remaining Cresto mercs. To Shepards disappointment though, another quarian engineer, a woman ironically, quickly re-hacked the mech, turning it back on their side. Shepard threw his last grenade in hope of hitting something vulnerable and hit the neck, where it instantly stuck. "_Alright..."_he thought, happy with the results.

The grenade exploded, taking off the head of the mech and activating it's self-destruct sequence. The mech fell and exploded with the force of a shot from Shepards M-920 Cain, taking with it the nearby mercs. Shepard saw the quarian engineer that had re-hacked the mech, fly away one way and half her arm another. An asari that had been standing right next to the mech, had disappeared without a trace.

Shepard shot another human and looked around the room for more hostiles, but saw no one else. He realized that they had just shot them all. All of them! They made it! Shepard laughed with joy over the victory, but Tali just seemed confused. She turned to Shepard. "These quarians can't have been Kav'e-Theil! It's impossible that this many are the descendants of exiles. I don't even think there are this many of them in the entire galaxy."she said.

Shepard looked at her. "Don't worry about that now Tali."he said. "We need to find a shuttle to get back to the Normandy." Thane and Grunt walked over to them. Thane looked around the room for a while. "There."he said and pointed at an undamaged shuttle that was behind some crates. They walked over to the vehicle and opened it.

As the shuttle took off, a door opened and more mercs stormed out, shooting at them. They barely made it out of the closing hangar doors as a rocket missed them by merely a meter. Finally they could breathe out and relax. Shepard began to chuckle over their luck. The chuckle soon evolved into a laugh and soon, they where all laughing at tonight's events, even Thane couldn't hold it back.

"I can't believe it!"Shepard said laughing. "First we survive an ambush and fight hundreds of Blue suns and then get shot down, and fight our way into the Cresto base and fight hundreds of **Cresto**!"

Grunt cried out happily: "Now **that**, was a good fight Shepard!" Tali gave out a happy sigh. "It's going to be nice to return to the ship and get some sleep."she said.

They got back to the docking pad where they had gotten the original shuttle. Although the shuttle looked identical, you could tell that something had happened when four soldiers step out of it, tired dirty and covered in blood. They got aboard the Normandy and onto the command bridge. Joker inhaled a piece of the sandwich he was eating when he saw them. "Aw man, Shepard! You look like shit, what happened down there!" Shepard turned to the helmsman. "It went to hell. We fought through hundreds of Blue suns and then hundreds of Cresto."he said with a tired voice.

"Yeah, no shit commander"Joker said. "Bet you're pretty tired now huh?" Shepard didn't answer, but went straight to the elevator with the rest. EDI appeared next to Joker. "I believe you may be correct, Jeff." Joker looked at the AI. "Yes, didn't notice that EDI, thank you." he said sarcastically.

Tali and Shepard stepped out of the elevator at the captains quarters. Shepard looked at the empty fish tank. "And we forgot to buy a fish too..."he said to Tali. Tali giggled and looked at Shepard. How about we get it tomorrow, John?"she said.

As he lay in the bed with Tali in an embrace, he thought about the nights events. After a while, he pushed those thought aside though and concentrated at the quarian he held in his arm. He looked into the soft eyes that returned the glance. He smiled and felt himself sink into thoughts of them being on Rannoch.

_They where_ _sitting in the grass and viewing the valley beneath them. _

_The small lake, where the suns orange beams reflect on the smooth surface, giving it the look of a sunset. The mountains in the distance, where the snow laid like a covering sheet on the tops and the great grass plains in the middle, where all the kids from the area where playing._

A thought slowly appeared in his head, bringing another smile on his lips. "Kids..."he played with the idea for a while.

_He saw Tali walking towards him, holding a little girl, about a year old, in her chest height. The baby had both human and quarian features, including the curved legs of a quarian and the five fingered hands that he had himself. Tali chuckled. "Look Ilani, it's daddy." she said in a playful tone, mentioning the name that Shepards mind had automatically spawned. The girl stretched out a little hand at him and laughed._

As Tali was just about hand over the little girl to Shepard, he quickly got out of his thoughts as a realization replaced it, making his smile fade. He realized that they would never be able to see such a future with their genetic diversity. His happiness was replaced with sorrow.

Tali must have noticed his sudden change in mood, as she put her hand on his chest. "Whats wrong?" her voice had a tone of concern. "It's just..."Shepard started. He hesitated over the idea of talking of this with Tali now, but continued. "It's just that I realized that, no matter how much we want it, we can never have kids of our own...never..."

Tali looked at him. "John..." She took the hand that he had on his stomach with her other hand and locked their fingers together. "We don't need to have a child to be happy. We will still have each other." she said in a loving, soft tone. Shepard sighed. "I know..."he said. "But still, imagine little feet running around in the mornings. Us having the titles "mom" and "dad", "mother" and "father". Don't you want that, Tali?"

She placed her head on his shoulder in a position that allowed her to look up at Shepard. "Yes, John. I want that..."she said. Shepard could hear in her voice that she probably wanted nothing more. "But as I said: we will still have each other."

Shepard put his hand under her chin and once again felt his heart melt by the two eyes that watched him through the glass. "Now that is why I fell in love with you Tali. You always seem to make me happy again, no matter how heartsick I am."

Shepard saw Tali's eyes smiling as she slightly tilted down her head and slowly closed them. He smiled himself as he let his eyelids fall down and he slowly fell asleep, entering a world of dreams and perfection.


	5. Chapter 4:One can only dream

Tali slowly opened her eyes and the first thing she noticed was Shepard that laid behind her. He was lying with his body pressed up against her back. In his sleep, he had laid his right leg over hers and his right arm over her chest, his hand gently squeezing her breast. She looked down on the mans hand and turned her head to look at his face. The man slept, seeming to be far away in la-la land. She looked back at her chest where Shepards hand had settled down.

"_Heh. Even in his sleep he seems to be drawn there_."she thought. The quarian chuckled at her own little joke and looked at the clock that was resting on the small table that stood next to the bed. Through the blur of her tired eyes she saw the small, white, digital numbers showing 12:14 pm. They had missed breakfast and lunchtime was less than an hour away.

That and the curiosity of the crew made Tali get to the conclusion that there weren't going to be any time to be a sleepyhead. She opened her omni-tool and turned her masks audio on. She turned her head back too the sleeping commander, rose her left hand and picked him a few times in the forehead with her finger.

"John! Come on, we have to get up."she said to the sleepy commander who's eyelids had slowly opened. He looked at her with a tired glance. He mumbled something that Tali guessed was supposed to be a "what". She laid her hand on his shoulder and shook him lightly. "John! Wake up!"she repeated and raised her voice as she shook him harder to prevent him from falling back asleep.

The young woman managed to bring new life in him and he looked around the room. He then noticed that he had his hand resting on the quarians breast. He quickly pulled his hand back and sat up in the bed as he shouted: "Oh my god! Tali, I'm so sorry!"

Tali couldn't help but laugh as she saw the commander sitting in the bed, holding his right hand with his left and blushing heavily; it was usually Tali that was nervous and embarrassed, not Shepard. She sat up and put her hand on his and looked at him. "Come on! We're late; we have to get up."she said, trying to hold back the laughter of the scene.

Shepard nodded. The human didn't respond her look and his cheeks where bright red, which made Tali having to work even harder to not laugh. She put her hands on his cheeks and turned his head towards her, making him finally look into her eyes. She leaned in, closer to his face. "John..."she giggled, "We've been together for a little while now. We love each other, hell, we've slept with each other. As far as I'm concerned, you have nothing to be embarrassed about."

Shepard shrugged. "Yeah, well...it just seems a little...inappropriate." he said, putting an emphasis on the last word. Tali giggled. "Oh I don't know..."she removed her hands from his cheeks. "I find it quite...sexy...as long as you do it on purpose and there is no one around."she said a little nervously. She then remembered what the time was. "Come on! We have to go."she repeated once again. Shepard nodded and Tali got out of the bed and walked towards the elevator, swaying her body from side to side in the way she knew Shepard liked. She chuckled at the very unusual start of the day.

* * *

Garrus watched through the small crack in the slightly opened door to the life support as Tali and Shepard walked out of the elevator. He turned to Miranda who was sitting on a table next to him. "Where they both in it?" Miranda asked. Garrus nodded affirmatively. The ex-cerberus officer sighed. "She's once again gone for the night and then they both show up in the elevator. I think this is more than just a "broken terminal"."she said.

Garrus looked back through the door crack at the suspected couple that walked into the mess hall. The turian shook his head. He looked at Miranda. "I don't think we should be spying on them."he said. "If they wanted us to know of any relationship, they would tell us."

Miranda got off the table she was sitting on. "Relax Garrus."she said as she walked over to where the soldier was and leaned against the wall next to him. "It's not like we're following their every move! We're just checking for any signs; we aren't going to confront them or anything."

Garrus stood up and looked at the woman next to him. "Yeah I guess you're right. Doesn't feel right though." Garrus knew that he had always been very poky with what's wrong and what's right. He knew it was wrong to spy on the commander and his possible girlfriend, but he felt his curiosity take the upper hand.

He decided to continue to watch them until his conscience told him otherwise.

* * *

As Shepard walked into the mess hall with Tali, he saw Grunt sitting at the table among some of the crew, devouring a large varren steak. He walked over to the krogan which noticed him and stopped his feasting. "It's not lunch yet Grunt."the commander said. "And where did you get that?"he pointed at the giant piece of meat that Grunt held in his hands.

The krogan looked at the steak and then back at Shepard, smiling. "I was hungry."he said and drank half-a-mouthful of ryncol that he had next to him on the table. "Heh...and there's not much a human can do but obey when a krogan shouts at him to make food!"he laughed.

Shepard shook his head and sat down in a chair. Tali sat down in front of him and picked up a tube of nutrient paste from a pocket and injected it into the feeding tube on her helmet. She sat there, her head resting in her hands and her elbows on the table, staring Shepard in the eyes as she "drank" her paste until Rupert walked over to him.

"Good news commander!"the chef said happily. "While you where away, we went out on the market and ran into a full supply of new ingredients! Now it tastes like food again! How about you commander? Did you run into anything?"

Shepard looked at the cook and thought about what had happened last night. When Tali had executed a wounded quarian simply not to die herself. "Let's just say we ran into a very ammo-demanding situation." he looked at the gormandizing Grunt for a moment before returning his attention to Gardner. _"I think I feel like an early lunch as well."_he thought. "What's on the menu, by the way?"

Gardner smiled, like he had been waiting for that question the whole time. He slapped his hands together as he began speaking in a tone of pride. "Well today I will be serving an asari delicacy..." he walked away and came back with a large kettle. "Don't know it's name though!"he burst out as he scooped a yellow-like soup with small black bits from some Thessian creature into the bowl he had placed in front of Shepard earlier.

Shepard tasted a spoon of the soup as he prayed that it was better than the last one. As the yellow liquid touched his tongue he felt a mixture of flavors explode in his mouth, among them was the tiny black pieces of meat that tasted like a sweeter version of squid. He ate another spoon of soup, then another, then another and soon he had emptied the bowl.

"Rupert!"Shepard shouted over to the kitchen. "This tastes incredible! Good job!" he got no answer from the kitchen, although the mess hall was suddenly filled with shocked stares and disgusted facial-looks, all pointing at Shepard. Even Tali seemed to be in shock and Shepard knew why: history has no recording of a good tasting meal made by the man named Rupert Gardner. It had become like a law-of-nature that his food tasted like varren genitals. He even tried to make some nutrient paste for Tali once, which was literally inedible, since he had, by mistake, made it out of levin amino minerals instead of dextro. Tali had kindly declined any second attempt.

Shepard looked over to the shocked audience. All of them had stopped with whatever they where doing. Even Grunt had stopped eating and instead stared at him. A piece of meat fell out of the krogans mouth that was now looking more like a bird box. The human shrugged. "Really, it's good!"he said in an effort to persuade them.

As the attempt seem to have been in vain, Shepard felt more uncomfortable with the situation for every second that passed. He wanted to get away from there. Fast.

"Well..."he said as he stood up. "I have to get back to work."he walked around the corner towards the elevator and felt the stares of the crew disappear.

As he was standing by the elevator doors, waiting for them to open, he heard the gossip resume from where he had just been and the sound of Grunt returning to tear in the large piece of meat he had.

Finally, the doors opened and he stepped in. He pressed the CIC and the elevator came into movement. Shepard tried to concentrate on his current task: to gather the galaxy against the reaper armada. So far, it hadn't been going well. He stepped into the Combat Information Center and saw that he had a message at his private terminal. He walked over to the terminal and pressed the "in box" button. At the top of the list was a message that had a seal made of a modified version of he letter "c" that he had hoped to never see again. He opened the message and read it.

_From: "G"_

_To: Commander John Eric Shepard of the Normandy_

_Commander, I was most displeased upon receiving the news of your survival; I was hoping I would get rid of you once and for all. _

_I see now, however that I was stupid and naïv to think the task would be an easy one, since the major merc groups had not succeeded and my group is merely a minor. _

_I'm really hoping that we will see each other soon. Maybe even in person. You may already have noticed I am allied with the Blue suns. Vido gave me quite an offer, all in exchange for my aid in killing you. _

_I feel I must warn you: I'm not going to be as polite the next time we meet. I'm going to kill you, mutilate you, throw your liver to the varrens and take a picture of the remains and publish it on the web for the galaxy to see. I think I'll put a copy on my fridge too._

_Your old friend, Ganackk_

_p.s. I noticed by the security recordings that you have an adorable little quarian in your team. The boys will be happy to get to...blow off some steam._

Shepard felt anger boil up in him as he read the last part. He grunted. _"Like hell they will." _Shepard closed the message and turned off the terminal. He walked over to the galaxy map and leaned over the rail in front of him.

He looked around the room. The crew that weren't on the deck below was working on their terminals with whatever task they had. Yeoman Kelly Chambers was standing behind him, working on her own terminal. Her red hair was set up in the neat way it always was. He looked towards the bridge where Joker was sitting, probably eating on another of his sandwiches or arguing with EDI over something. When he saw Joker turn his chair towards the AI, throwing his arms up in the air, he concluded that it was the latter. Navigator Hadley and Mathews where discussing as usual. Shepard had heard them discussing anything from video-game results to Miranda's body shape to what they where going to do on their next shore leave.

A small bang could be heard from Mordin's lab, followed by the slarians voice, shouting that it was nothing fatal; only a "minor setback" as the professor liked to call it. Shepard remembered when Mordin told him about the impossibility of a little one between him and Tali. When he heard the words leave the salarians lips, it had felt like he had just been stabbed in the chest and then got a large stone laid on top of the knife. Then, it was like his whole world came crashing down on him, but now he had got used to the facts. What Tali had told him yesterday also helped.

Mordin was (as far as he knew) the only on of the crew that knew what he and Tali had together, but although he wanted it to stay that way, he knew that they could not keep it a secret for much longer. Not if they wanted to be together in the same way outside of his quarters.

Although the scene was close to idyllic, it was not what Shepard wanted.

He wanted to live with Tali in a cozy little house on a hill on Rannoch.

He wanted to sit in the grass on top of the hill; just him, Tali and their little child and watch the orange sun set over the horizon, casting a bright red light over the savannah grass plains.

He wanted to live peacefully together with the woman of his life, not traveling across the galaxy in a warship, risking his life every day.

He wanted the reapers, the mercs, all of them to just disappear.

He wanted it to be more than just dreams.

Shepard sighed as he remembered the facts; the geth where still in possession of Rannoch and showed no signs of wanting to share it with the quarians, the mercenary groups will never disappear; even if one is destroyed, a new one will take it's place. He and Tali where never going to have a little kid and bottom line: when and where the reapers show up is not known and there is a great risk that Shepard, and everyone else for that matter, will not survive the coming battle.

Shepard pushed aside the thoughts of the future to focus on the present. He once again studied the galaxy map, trying to figure out his next step.

* * *

Tali was standing by her terminal down in engineering, trying to keep up with Ken and Gabby in maintaining the ship. Basically all the time, she did something wrong and had to go back a step or two. Usually she was very concentrated on the work at hand, but this time she had other thoughts she couldn't get rid of.

_She walked into a small bedroom. The walls where painted baby blue and on the floor was a dark blue broadloom and small toys where scattered across it. The small square room had two windows, one right in front of her and the other on the wall to her left; the yellow grass swaying softly in the light, warm breeze outside. Through the window in front of her she could see a large tree standing alone out on the great plain. _

_To the right of the window stood Shepard with his back turned to her, leaning over a crib, tickling whatever was laying in it. She smiled as a hysterical laugh could be heard from the crib and she walked over to the man. _

_Tali laid a hand on Shepards shoulder, making him aware of her presence. He grinned and put an arm around Tali's waist and pulled her close. Tali looked into the blue eyes of the man of her life, before turning her attention to the crib. _

_There laid a little girl, not even a year old, laughing with joy as she stretched her arms towards Tali. The baby had clear human and quarian features, like the quarian silver eyes and light lavender skin color and the five fingered hand of a human. Tali stretched her arms toward the child to pick it up. As she touched it, it laughed once again and grabbed Tali's thumbs._

_She lifted the baby up and held it in an embrace so that both her and Shepard could see the child's face. She took her right hand and tickled the baby under the chin, causing it to let out another hysterical laugh. Tali looked at Shepard; this time there where no helmet in the way, not when they where on Rannoch. "She's beautiful."she said silently._

_Shepard put his hand on the back of her head and leaned in and put his forehead against hers. "Must have got it from her mother."he said lovingly._

"Hey Tali!" Ken's voice interrupted Tali's thoughts and she looked at the other engineer that was standing across the room. "You're working or what?"

Tali realized she had completely stopped working. "Sorry."she said and resumed tampering through the menus. "Got a little distracted." Ken didn't answer. He simply turned his head back to his own terminal and got back to work.

Tali sighed as she thought over her future with Shepard on Rannoch. The future where they had their little house on the hill. The future where they raised their own little kid. The future where they ran across the great grass plains, seeing which was the faster one, where they swam in the lake and splashed water at each other. The future where there was no more adventures, no more missions, no more life-or-death experiences. The future where she lived peacefully with the love of her life and with her friends. The future where she and Shepard started a family and watched their children grow up**...**

The future she would never have**...**


	6. Chapter 5:Privacy, normalcy and intimacy

As Shepard was leaning over the galaxy map, it's holographic stars glowing with a soft, blue light, he felt he couldn't get rid of his thoughts of Rannoch and the geth, so he stood back up straight and turned around and walked towards the elevator.

Shepard stepped in and pressed the button back to the third floor, where he would probably get the same kind of looks from the crew as when he had left. He didn't want the wondering eyes of the crew to follow his every step, but he had to talk to Legion about this. To get his mind straight.

As the doors opened, Shepard walked towards the med bay, in order to get to the AI core. As he walked into the mess hall, he saw Grunt, who was still holding onto his large piece of varren, Garrus, who was talking to the other two, crewman Hawthorne and crewman Gibbs. And then there was Jacob, who was sitting with a slightly nauseated look on his face as he watched Grunt's gormandizing feast. Somehow, Shepard managed to get to the medical bay without anyone noticing him.

Chakwas was standing by one of the beds, handing over a small bottle of pills to a crewman that apparently had a serious tummy ache. Shepard had for a long time wondered over how it would be to work as a doctor in a warship. To treat anything from headache to blown off limbs, the patients rarely surviving the latter. He figured that Chakwas either thought a tummy ache was nothing more than a waste of her time, or was happy to get to treat something simple for once.

The commander walked into the AI core where Legion was standing. As he got closer, the synthetic uttered a few small beeps before letting out a "Shepard-commander", the title that Shepard apparently had among the geth. Shepard cleared his throat before speaking. "I'd like to talk to you about Rannoch."he said.

The geth's plates that where located on it's head twitched a little. The human had always thought those plates looked very much like eyebrows. "We are currently building consensus regarding the creator homeworld."it said with a robotic voice.

Shepard raised an eyebrow. _"Are they already considering it?"_he asked himself. "Well...what is your status?"he asked the AI.

The geth stared at him, it's "eyebrows" twitching further. "Mixed opinions. Fifty-four million three-hundred-and-thirty-one thousand eight-hundred-and-sixty-four believe that co-existence with creators is the best option, while forty-nine million six-hundred-and eight thousand four-hundred-and-twenty-three does not; majority is still undecided."

Shepard looked at the AI, dumbfounded. _"Over a hundred million geth have said no or yes, and still the majority is undecided! How long will this take?"_he asked himself rhetorically. "So you are actually considering giving the quarians back their homeworld?"he asked.

"Yes."Legion said in an emotionless monotone. "Creators have a considerable need of their homeworld. Geth don't. There are few reasons not to return it to them. We recommend not informing creator Tali'Zorah of our current debate. If it reaches a negative conclusion, emotional instability may occur."

Shepard nodded. He knew that the synthetic was right: Tali would probably become an emotional wreck to get confirmed that she would never get to see her home. Her true home.

He also though over the way Legion had said it. He had never really liked the geth's way to talk. If any organic talked in the same way, he would be called cold and heartless. That is the unpleasant thing with most A-and VI's: they lack any real emotions and therefore, speak without any hint of fear, sorrow, happiness or concern. It was like the geth didn't care about Tali at all, and he really didn't; machines only think data, not feelings. Shepard did not yet know how Cerberus managed to make EDI an exception; she imitates emotions, she cares about people and she even jokes from time to time. Well...try to joke at least.

The thought of a possibility for him and Tali to get to Rannoch didn't come up in his head properly until then. There was actually a chance that they would get that house on the hill. To sit in the ankle-high grass and watch the sunset together. To swim in the little lake that he had pictured and to lie on the small sand beach and look at the clouds pass by. Although they would still never get a kid, he felt that that was the closest to perfect he could get. Once again, he slipped back into his mind.

_He saw Tali standing with her back turned to him in the water that only went a little under her waist. She was wearing nothing but a small, white bikini and her, now tanned, skin was reflected on the dark blue water. The tanning had turned her skin-color from pale lavender to light purple, giving her, according to Shepard, an extra look of exoticism. She was looking around the water and to the beach and the area beyond it; she obviously did not know where he was._

_Shepard was right next to a small rock, pointing up above the surface of the slightly shallow water. He had laid down and kept his arms for support, resulting in that nothing but his head could be seen. He lowered himself a little bit so that the blue water was right under his eyes. He then silently made his way towards her, careful not to alert her of his presence, but at the same time, under the water, humming the melody from the old movie "Jaws" he had seen a while ago._

_As he got closer to his oblivious "victim", he began humming faster and faster for every feet he made. When he was well within arms length of her, he stretched out on the last humming. He stood there for a few seconds and looked at the beautiful quarian that, in turn, was looking for him, before blowing out under the water, making bubbles that caught her attention with a plopping sound._

_As Tali turned around to see where the strange noise came from, Shepard shot out and pulled her down into the warm water, causing her to scream as they plunged down, sending a cascade of water to fly in all directions. He got back up while he continued to hold her, his right arm over stomach, her lower back resting on his thigh under water while he held her by her shoulder blades with his other arm._

"_Shepard! What are you doing!"Tali squealed while he got into a half-crouching position that made him look like a hero from the old movies, when he had just saved a damsel in distress._

_Shepard smiled. "You may call me a big-game hunter..."he said as he leaned closer to her. "And I think I got my little trophy."_

_Now Tali smiled as well. "Well, O' great hunter..."she giggled, "You got me. What do you want to do with me?"she moved her right hand to his shoulder and bit her lower lip._

_Shepard leaned further in and was only a few centimeters away from her face. "Oh, I know exactly what I want to do with you."he said and Tali giggled over their little role-play as she too leaned in and their lips met in a passionate kiss._

_They pushed away from each and Shepard looked into the eyes of the woman he held in an embrace and he felt that his heart was so filled with love for that woman so that he thought it would stop._

"Shepard-commander."Legion's voice interrupted his thoughts and he looked up at the geth platform. "Consensus will not be reached at faster rate if Shepard-commander stands there waiting.

Shepard nodded, slightly embarrassed, as he realized that he must have stood there for quite some time. He turned around and walked out of the room to continue with his daily objectives.

* * *

Tali was standing by her terminal in engineering and could still not get free of her daydreams of Shepard.

_She pictures him lying next to her in the bed of their little house, looking at her with the smile that always seemed to make her heart melt and her legs to feel weak. _

_He gently strokes her cheek with the upper side of his fingers as he whispers the words she never tires of hearing: "Hey beautiful."he says as the white, pattered curtains of the small window twists the orange sunrays, casting a bright orange light around the room, having the same patterns of quarian swirls as the curtains._

_She close in on him and just as their lips are about to meet, she hears a beeping noise from her right._

She looks to where it comes from and sees Donelly holding a small, beeping clock. She knew that that meant a break, since Ken always made sure not to miss the breaks. Tali walks into the corridor where the elevator is, only to see Ken and Gabby racing to it. Gabby pushes Ken out of the way and steps into the elevator, letting out a "Ha!" at the defeated Ken Donelly.

Tali stops in front of the elevator and presses the button and then waits for it to come back down; Ken standing next to her. _"I have a feeling that Ken won't just get into the elevator while I'm just standing there. He will probably try to get a revenge on his defeat against Gabby."_the quarian thought to herself.

Quite right, when the elevator doors opened, Ken pushed heraside and rushed into the elevator, letting out the same "Ha!"as Gabby did. However, before the doors could close, Tali put her foot between the doors, causing them to open again and pulls out Ken, throwing him to the floor.

As the doors where closing, Tali felt she couldn't resist, so she leaned slightly forward and let out the typical "Ha!"at the man that was lying his back, looking at her with a sulky look on his face.

As she got up to the crew deck and entered the mess hall, she saw that the only one sitting at the table was Kasumi. She sat down in front of the human who looked at her with a smile.

"So, Tali, how's it going with you and Shepard?"the thief asked with a playful voice.

Tali froze to ice when she heard the question. "H-how do you know? I haven't..."she said before Kasumi cut her off,

"Tali, in my business you have to know how to find out a few secrets."she said with a smile. "But don't worry: I won't tell the rest of the crew. You can trust me."

Tali smiled under her faceplate. "...Said the greatest thief in the galaxy..."she said sarcastically. "But really, it's going quite well, thanks for asking."

Kasumi put her elbows on the table and her head in her hands. "But not quite as good as you hoped for?"she asked, although the question was more of a statement.

Tali nodded slowly, knowing that she was right. "I want us to be together freely, not just in the captains quarters, but we don't know when or really how she should reveal it."

Kasumi put her arms back on the table. "Well I would suggest tha..."she started, but was cut off by Ken entering the room, having finally got on the elevator. Kasumi nodded at Tali, suggesting they would take it another time, reminding Tali of the talk she had with Jacob when they had just destroyed the collector base.

She turned to Ken who was walking past them, "Ken, do you know where Jacob is?" she asked.

The engineer turned to her. "No."he said. "As a matter of fact I don't. Usually he's in the armory, but I heard he was working on something somewhere else on the ship." he raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

Tali sighed. "Nothing, really. Just wanted to talk to him about something. Thanks anyway."she said and waved away the man, who shrugged and walked away. She looked at Kasumi, but she shrugged too. She decided to take it another time.

* * *

Shepard was once again standing over the galaxy map, trying to figure out their next step; it would be good to get off Illium for a start. He thought over his options. It had gone to hell with the Cresto and the Blue suns hated him from the very beginning, so did the Blood pack, the Eclipse and the Black rose.

The Juggernaut group had nothing in particular against him, they where made of clones, owned by some super rich german in a wheelchair named Heinrich Kneffler. They where few compared to the rest of the groups, but where wearing bulletproof, mechanical super-suits that make them look more like mechs than people. It is really no big surprise they are called "the Juggernaut". If something went wrong, Shepard did not really feel like fighting his way out of a situation like that.

That leaves the quarians, the geth, the batarians and, later on, the Juggernaut and perhaps the other merc groups too somehow. If he could find solid evidence of the existence of the reapers, he would most likely get the council, that will say the salarians, the turians and the asari, on his side. Later on, when and if Wrex manages to unite the krogan, he would get them on his side too.

Shepard scratched his forehead. He had heard that some kind of relic, probably prothean, had been excavated on a small desert planet out in the Terminus systems. Maybe it would get them on some track to get that evidence the council so dearly desires.

Shepard pressed a small solar system located in the Terminus on the map, causing it to zoom in. The commander pressed one of the planets, a giant ball of sand and dust named Argax, zooming in on it further. He studied the large sphere of rock, before starting the planet scanner. Soon it had found an anomaly, which Shepard pressed, sending the coordinates to Joker.

"Aye, aye commander. Plotting a course to the other side of the galaxy again. ETA twelve hours."the helmsman's voice could be heard over the intercom, sounding a little different due to a large chunk of bread stuffed into his mouth. Either Joker had not time to eat in the mess hall or he simply likes sandwiches. Regardless, it seemed to be the only thing he ate, as far as Shepard knew.

Shepard walked back to the elevator to see if he could do the same as last time. He pressed to engineering and felt as the elevator came into motion.

* * *

Tali was working on her terminal once again. Her conversation with Kasumi had somehow helped her in concentrating on her work and not think as much of Shepard. But it was all ruined when no one less but commander John Eric Shepard suddenly stretched his arms around her waist, causing her to jerk of surprise. "Missed me?"she could hear the always soft, loving voice of Shepard ask.

Tali put her hands on Shepards arms that was around her waist and leaned back, putting her right next to the mans face. "Always..."she whispered. She looked at Ken and Gabby that was working nonstop. They must have figured out about her and Shepard by now. "You trying to get me up to your quarters again?"she asked

"You bet!"the commander replied as he tightened his grip around her. Tali smiled under her helmets tinted glass. _"Men..."_she thought. "_What more to expect?"_

Tali never had anything against bunkering down in the bed on the top floor, but this time she felt she wanted something more. Something a little more...intimate. "I have one last thing to do."she told him. "Wait up there, I'll come in a little while."

Shepard smiled and let go of her. She turned around and saw him heading for the elevator. She waited until she heard the elevator doors shut, before she walked into the corridor and pushed the "down" button to the elevator. As she waited for the doors to open, she caught herself impatiently tapping her foot. She was at the very least excited over the idea that danced through her mind.

The doors finally opened and she stepped in and pressed the CIC. _"Let's just hope that Mordin is out of the lab."_she thought to herself. As the doors opened she walked into Mordin's lab, to find it empty. She breathed out in relief and looked around the room. She stopped in front of a terrarium where a small, black, furry creature with long front teeth, small feet and a naked tail sat and chewed on a vegetable of some sort. On a small sign on the glass it said "Black rat (Rattus rattus), Earth"

Tali looked closer at the strange animal. "Is this a normal animal on Earth?"she asked herself out loud. She quickly stopped looking when she remembered why she was there. She searched the room until she found a box of syringes, all containing full doses of antibiotics. She took one and continued her search. About a minute later, she found a box of different herbal supplements. She took a few and closed the box.

She put the syringe and the supplements in a pocket and walked towards the elevator. She walked past yeoman Chambers, hoping that she would not turn around and see her. Tali pressed the button and the doors opened. She stepped in and pressed up to captains quarters. The memories of the night before the Omega 4 relay returned. She felt her face heat up and her heart begin to race once again.

The doors opened and she found herself outside Shepards quarters. Tali took up the supplements and the syringe and injected both of them while standing outside the door that Shepard was right behind, before dropping them on the floor.

The door opened and she saw Shepard waiting for her by the aquarium, smiling. She walked over to him, feeling her pulse raise by every step. "You came, after all."Shepard said sarcastically.

The words somehow calmed Tali down and she found herself being able to speak with a relatively normal tone. "Of course I did John. And...well...so, I've taken some antibiotics as well as some herbal supplements that should bolster my immune system..."

"_Here we go again..."_


	7. Chapter 6:Change in strategy

***Authors note: Well I'm back from a one-week vacation in Turkey and I celebrate this by releasing this chapter.**

The Illusive Man was sitting in his chair, viewing the great star that cast a bright, blue light from outside of his dreadnought. The star had been shining with a mixture of red and blue for as long as he had remembered. Ever since Shepard destroyed the collector base though, it had turned fully blue. The man grunted angrily as the commander entered his mind. From the beginning, The Illusive Man thought of him as an asset, an opportunity to expand human dominance across the galaxy. It had turned out though, that he had been nothing but trouble for him.

The man opened his console, which appeared in front of him as a hologram. He pressed a few buttons and soon he watched the files of his "creation". He viewed the schematics for the Normandy as well as the character profiles and dossiers of commander Shepard and his crew. He opened Shepards profile and looked at the picture of the man in front of him.

As he looked into the blue eyes of the commander, he felt his heart (one of the few real body parts he had left) fill with rage. "I spend billions bringing you back Shepard."he said quietly to himself. "I give you a ship, a crew, both of them the best in the galaxy. I give you information; without me you wouldn't have been able to do anything, and this is how you repay me?"

He looked at one of the screens that he had caught in the corner of his eye. There was nothing left of the hologram but waves of static. He remembered the night when he had last seen Shepard. When the hologram of the commander faded out, he got back in his chair, trying to stay calm. After only a few seconds, the attempts had proven futile, and he had broken one of the panels with something he could not recall in his memory, in his furious tantrum.

The multibillionaire sighed and closed the file in front of him, only to open another file. One of a certain quarian mechanic. He watched the expressionless visor of the woman's helmet, unable to see her eyes. Although he had only picked the file at a random, when he was about to close it, his synthetic eyes caught something in the list of facts about the quarian. He turned back to the list, but had lost the specific place of the oddness. He decided to simply read through the list.

_Tali'Zorah vas Neema nar Rayya_

_Age:24_

_Sex:Female_

_Race:Quarian_

_Profession:Mechanic, military trained_

_Place of birth:The Rayya, Migrant Fleet_

_Parents:Rael'Zorah vas Rayya nar Li'nei (deceased), Ani'Zorah vas Rayya nar Neema (deceased)_

_Chirality: Dextro/Levo_

_Considered a mechanical genius, even among the already mechanically skilled quarians. She..._

He stopped reading, as he realized that he had already found the anomaly. "Chirality: Dextro/Levo?" he asked himself. No species had a mixed mineral chirality, and the computer could not lie since it updates as the subject in it's program did. While the quarians all had dextro DNA, she would have had to get levo DNA mixed into hers. Most of the galaxy's species had levo based chirality: the salarians, the krogan, the asari, the...humans...

The man reopened Shepards file next to Tali's and looked at the list:

_John Eric Shepard_

_Age:27_

_Sex:Male_

_Race:Human_

_Profession: Soldier, military commander of battle cruiser Normandy SR2_

_Place of birth:New Chicago, United Nations of North America, Earth_

_Parents:N/A_

_Chirality..._

The Illusive Man's eyes widened as he read the last part, over and over again. _"Dextro/Levo"_

He looked at the picture of the quarian, then at the human. He grabbed his nose bridge, closed his eyes and shook his head. "Shepard, you never cease to amaze."he laughed to himself.

He knew that Shepard was no racist, not by a long shot. The commander would risk his life just as gladly to save a human, as to save a batarian. He had never imagined anything like this though.

"_Thank god for genetic diversion."_he thought as he put a newly lit cigarette at his lips and inhaled the smoke of burned tobacco. The diversion kept what was, in his opinion, abominations from being created; stains on human purity and cleanness. Most of all, he was thankful that there could still be no one like Shepard.

The man dug in his mind and found that he thought not only Shepard as a waste of resource, he actually hated him. He hated the mans shortsighted thinking, his unnecessary mind for "ethics" and "morale". He hated Shepards inability to put humans before less important species, his undying mind of justice and fairness; a naivety that got in the way of effectiveness. But most of all: he hated the fact that Shepard was the galaxy's only hope against the reapers, since he had not yet recovered any reaper technology that he could use at the incoming threat. If not for this simple fact, he would have obliterated Shepard by now for his treason.

The man blew out the smoke of the cigarette as he tapped it, making the ash fall into the ashtray that was built into his chair. He smiled over that that little fact may soon be taken care of. Cerberus agents had found another derelict reaper out in space. Unlike the one that Shepard had been on, this one had been completely empty, allowing the scientists to simply step in and set up shop. The chance was great that they would find and recover some vital reaper data, or so the scientists had said.

He continued to look through the files. He studied Tali's file extensively, from anything to her height and weight, to logs of her military training, to result data from her mechanic work. All-in-all: Shepard had found himself quite a woman. _"...and she will have to die with all the rest of them in the end."_he thought. _"Pity."_

The tycoon leaned back in his chair and closed the quarians character file, in order to concentrate on Shepard. "You have yourself quite a life, don't you Shepard?"he rhetorically asked the picture in front of him. "You are the commander of the most advanced warship-equipped with the deadliest team-in the galaxy. The galaxy loves you for saving them twice, you're sleeping with a –surely beautiful- quarian..."he pulled in another cloud of smoke into his lunges before breathing it out again, "...and here I sit, not being able to touch you..."

As he sat in his chair, he began regretting not putting in a control chip into Shepard like Miranda had recommended. It was far too late now though, however, so he pushed those thoughts aside to bother with what is actually important.

The science teams had reported that they had been able to find reaper technology on board. Nothing new, but they could make a breakthrough at any moment; although he was usually a man of patience, The Illusive Man felt that he could not wait to get to hammer Shepard into the ground for what he had done.

The man stretched for the glass of scotch that was standing on the armrest of his chair, but accidentally hit it with a fingertip, sending it crashing into the floor. The glass shattered into thousands of small, sharp pieces and sending them all over the smooth, polished surface that was the floor of his private office.

He stopped in mid-movement and looked at the sea of broken glass at the floor. In the bright light from the star, the small shards twinkled like eyes of little children who had just caught sight of the pile of presents lying under the tree in the early Christmas morning.

Despite the recent parable, The Illusive Man felt no happiness with the whole situation. Instead, he once again placed his face in the palm of his hand and let out an annoyed sigh; nothing had gone right for the past week. First Shepard had destroyed the collector base instead of giving it to him, then the commander had severed all his ties to Cerberus, taking all the tycoon's power over the situation from him. As long as Shepard was in control of it, humanity was never going to take a step ahead of the other species. Sure, they had a seat at the council, but that was not enough. Humanity was meant to stand above the other races, not be equals with them.

The problems had not only to do with Shepard. The day after the run on the collectors, an asteroid had collided with a Cerberus vessel, killing the entire crew of over three hundred men and women. The main source of problems was though Shepard and his crew, and there The Illusive Man, one of the most powerful persons in the galaxy, sat and couldn't do anything about it. There was no way he would be able to touch Shepard. He was...

The man stopped his pessimistic thoughts and once again looked at the glass on the floor that looked like a miniature galaxy, sparkling around in his office. _"Unless..."_

His thoughts wandered away, trying to stay on the topic of glass; he felt an idea nestle in his mind, he just had to lure it out. His mind flew from terrariums to aquariums, which brought his thoughts back to Shepard since the commander had one himself. He thought of broken clocks and further on to the glass in space helmets, which he sensed brought him closer to that certain idea that his in his subconscious.

He stopped at the realization that it was not just any space helmet, but a quarian faceplate that was the thing. The quarian and it's (yes, "it") faceplate. The thoughts of quarians brought his mind back to 'Zorah. _"I can't hurt Shepard or his...girlfriend...since it would compromise the mission gravely. If I give Shepard the...right motives however, I could get him to do as I wish once again; he wouldn't want his dear quarian to come in harms way, would he?"_

Another smile spread across The Illusive Man's face. Dr. Mordin Solus had removed all the audio-and video bugs that where spread all over the Normandy. What no one knew, however, was that tracking devices had also been planted on the ship, which now allowed him to track the Normandy's movement and route plannings.

He opened the menus for the warship that he had spent two years building, and looked over the ships rout plans. The man was surprised to find that the Normandy was standing still out in the middle of nowhere and showed no intention of moving.

He uttered an inpatient grunt and activated the tracking beacons; as soon as the Normandy SR2 would move anywhere, The Illusive Man would know where it was and where it was going.

The man returned his attention to the broken glass pieces on the floor. He breathed in another cloud of burned tobacco, activated the intercom and called in the cleaner to pick this mess up. He found it quite funny that the cleaners where the only ones that got to see his office in person, except himself and certain characters that he had some special interests in and need to talk to, face-to-face. Those persons where quite few, considering that Shepard had to talk to him through a hologram.

He took one last look at the image of the ship and of the files. _"You can't hide from me forever Tali." _he thought. _"You are a major part in my plans; I always go through with my plans."_

The super rich tycoon stood up and began walking towards the door behind him; despite what you might expect of someone as mysterious as The Illusive Man, he too need to sleep occasionally.

He stepped through the dark door that was carefully designed not to be seen or draw attention from within the office. Immediately, like flies to droppings, his bodyguards surrounded him to escort him, almost unnecessarily safely through the ship.

The guards where all large human men, close to two meters in height and almost enough muscles to wrestle down a krogan; a task that would be impossible for any human alone, however. They where all dressed in fully covering, full white armor; the eyes on it's helmet glowing light blue. The joints of the armor was mechanically enforced, allowing them to perform the recently mentioned task by themselves.

On their backs they where carrying a large automatic machine-gun with armor-piercing ammo, siting in a position that made it easy to reach back with their right arm and pull it out of it's magnetic holster. Next to the large rifles there was an even larger tank, containing different types of steroids and adrenaline that where pumped into the men at a scheme that was programmed into the armored suit itself, turning them to something close to super-humans.

From the large helmets led three large tubes; on the (for the wearer) right side of the helmet went the tube to the large tank on their backs. The tube ended at the chin of the wearer, but continuing inside the helmet through smaller tubes that went directly to the neck and injected the fluids into the carotid artery.

The tube on the left side of the helmet went under their heavy machine-guns, to not be in the way, and down to a small bag at the waist, filled with antibiotics and different kinds of medicines that could also be injected when needed. Right next to it was a small, square hatch. If you opened the hatch you would find the last one: the feeding tube, which went up to the back of their head before continuing on to the mouth through the inside of the helmets like the steroid tube does.

Through the feeding tube, a nutrient paste, not very unlike the ones of quarians, except being made by levin minerals, was injected directly to the guards mouth; people as violent as these had no time to sit down and enjoy a decent meal.

These large tubes where all reinforced and could not be cut; thus providing excellent protection for the actual tubes that where inside. Next to the feeding tube was also a breathing-tube, providing the wearer with fresh air that first passes through a number of small filters and then gets injected into the helmet.

With everything on the back of the helmet, the front of it was left completely smooth and without any openings or gaps. This has resulted with many of The Illusive Man's bodyguards customizing their helmets front with anything from re-shapes to custom painting; drop in discipline is an expected side-effect when dealing with adrenaline-pumped soldiers that have had their aggressions turn them to little more than cavemen with access to high-tech equipment.

In their belt hangs a Carnifex hand cannon and a stun stick, which power can be adjusted from painful shocks, to something more of a lightning bolt to your face. Other Cerberus staff like to call those kind of weapons "lightning stick" or "thunderbolt stick", and with no surprise.

One of the guards stepped up to The Illusive Man. His helmet was decorated with large horns, about thirty centimeters long, that had been applied on top of it and a custom painting on the whole helmet; only a few details, but it was enough to make the helmet look more like the skull of a bull than a headwear. The man was clearly not one to be messed with, and the orange plate on his left shoulder, a bit larger than the standard, screamed out his high rang.

The guard captain looked down at The Illusive Man. "Where do you want to go, sir?" he asked. His voice was heavy and almost unnaturally dark, a result of years of adrenaline pumping and steroid injecting. That together with the metallic sound that the helmet's speakers made and the dreadful appearance of the man gave the impression that he was an immortal killing machine. He was, of course, no such thing, but the tycoon knew from the years that the captain had worked for him that he was damn close.

The Illusive Man sighed. "Just...take me to my room, captain."he said and waved his hand in the direction indicated. "I have some things to think about..."

The armored brute nodded slowly, turned around, waved for some of his men to follow and began walking down the corridors of the dreadnought.

As they walked down the white hallways, drawing the glance of every Cerberus worker nearby, The Illusive Man looked at the large sword that was hanging from the captains belt, instead of a stun stick, he thought over how the sword was far to big to be carried by a normal man and how he had succeeded so well with designing his own personal guard (except for certain intellectual errors).

As they arrived at the door to The Illusive Man's quarters, he turned to the captain of the guard. "Thank you captain. That will be all."

The blue-glowing eyes looked at him through the large, white helmet and the armored man nodded. "Do you want me to leave a couple of my men here sir?"the brute asked. Normally, the captain used to drink with the other guards until they're all half-dead, to fight over petty things all night long, to hit on women (and hit men) or to destroy a table or two in some more or less spontaneous rage. When he was around the boss though, he suddenly turns so civilized.

The Illusive Man couldn't really care less though, as it didn't affect him. "No captain. You and your men are dismissed."

The guard once again nodded slowly, before walking down another hallway with his men. Probably to the lounge. The Illusive Man stared at where his bodyguards had just been standing, before entering his quarters.

The quarters was a large room, decorated with nothing more than he had installed in the captains quarters on the Normandy. These where only at a much larger scale than Shepards. To his left, a couple of terminals stood against a wall, containing the same things as the ones on his office. To his right, a couple of meters away, was an aquarium built into the wall, almost ten times larger than Shepards little fish-tank.

He had tested putting different sea predators from different planets into the tank to see what happened. He had put in a Thessian Gana-shark, a Jamen from Ilium, a Palavanian Lincoria, a bull shark from earth, as well as some other creatures that he couldn't remember the name of. Since there was no food chain among those animals, they tried to make a new one. In the end, the only survivor was actually the bull shark.

The Illusive Man studied the beautiful, albino white shark a little bit. He watched as the creature graciously moved through the water, almost like she was dancing as she flexibly moved around the seaweed that grew from the bottom.

The man smiled and walked over to his bed that was standing at the far end of the room, where he sat down. To the left of the bed was a large window that looked out at the empty void of space.

It suddenly hit him how he had walked over here; the great leaders through time was carried wherever they wanted to go. He felt though that he could not sit around and get fat. Not while the reapers threatened the galaxy. At the very least he could walk around in his own ship. He could sit around once he had completed his work. Once the humans had attained their rightful place of control in the galaxy. Once the reapers where defeated...

...and once Shepard was dead...


	8. Chapter 7:Crossing the line

***Authors note: Please review or I will get sadface :(**

_Tali opened her eyes and once again found herself in another place than where she had fallen asleep, but this time she was not in some creepy, dark room. She was sitting in a lounger in the sand; the great ocean in front of her. The sound of waves splashing against the rocks had a very calming effect._

_Tali didn't know in what place she was or at what planet, but she really didn't care. She simply leaned back in her chair and relaxed, like there where no such thing as stress or worries._

_The quarian suddenly noticed a second lounger to her right. She wondered who was the owner of it, but she already knew the answer. All of a sudden, two human arms appeared at each side of her head, holding two drinks in front of her face; the right one yellow, the left one red. Both of them decorated with a straw and a small parasol._

"_Which one?" she heard Shepards voice ask. Tali giggled, but as she raised her hand to grab the left drink (she had always liked the color red more than yellow), she noticed a second thing: she was sitting in the chair without her suit. By some reason though, she didn't really bother, but grabbed the glass and began sipping the drink through the small, orange straw._

_Despite the hot, yellow sun that was flying high in the sky, the drink was cold enough for there to be a little ice in it. Naturally, as Shepard established himself in his chair, she spilled a little of the cold, red liquid on her chest. _

_Tali squealed and as she looked down at her chest to brush of the ice that was there, she noticed a third thing: not only was she sunning out of her suit, although she was not naked, she was doing it topless. She squealed again; not by cold, but embarrassment. The quarian quickly covered her exposed breasts with her arms and looked around at the beach, afraid that someone would see her._

_To her surprise though, there was no one at the beach but her and Shepard. There was no sign of any population. No structures, no people, not even on little piece of trash. She found it kind of nice._

_She heard Shepard chuckle as she was nervously looking away from his direction. She turned to him with a raised eyebrow. "Looking for someone?" the human said. You could hear on his voice that he was trying hard not to laugh as he was sitting there with his dark sunglasses and blue shorts. _

_Tali removed her arms from her breasts and looked at where she had spilled the drink. The ice had melted and cold water was running down her chest. Shepard stretched over his arm to wipe off the water from her breasts, but she instantly covered them again, this time with her hands. "Oh, you would really like that, wouldn't you?" she joked. Shepard laughed in response, leaned back in his chair and took another sip of his own drink._

_Tali looked down in her glass and realized the strange situation. "Where did he get these from? There's nothing around here!" she gave Shepard a questioning look, but he didn't react to it. Instead, he stood up and took the two steps that where between them._

_As Tali too stood up, Shepard threw his arm around her waist and grabbed her side, right above her hip. The young woman instantly forgot about the little mystery at hand, as she once again lost herself in the soft,blue eyes of commander John Shepard. "C'mon ms. Tali'Zorah, how about we take a little swim?" the commander said with a smile and nodded towards the great ocean where the water crashed at the rocks with a cascade of endless waves. Tali looked at the ocean, then at Shepard. She bit her lip and slowly nodded. She felt her legs weaken and getting close to collapsing._

_A short scream, followed by a loud splash, could be heard as Shepard threw Tali into the water, sending water in all directions. The quarian quickly stood up to see the laughing commander swim towards her. She tried to be angry at him, or at least a little annoyed, but she felt she just couldn't, and instead, she laughed too._

_Shepard grabbed her by the rear and lifted her up, putting her sides right above the water and his face in front of her chest (typically). They looked each other in the eyes and if Tali could feel any warmer inside, the water would boil. Shepard scanned the body of the quarian that he held in his hands, before looking back into her eyes. _

_Another wide grin suddenly appeared on his face and Tali realized the mistake in letting him lift her up again. Shepard bent down a little and Tali felt the muscles in his arms tense as he threw her into the water once again; although the childish mind of his could be pretty annoying from time to time, it was on of the many quality's that made the man that Tali loved with all her heart...or at least that's what she told herself every time something like this happened._

_Tali floated up the surface of the water, where she lied on her back, and looked at Shepard with an annoyed look. The human shrugged with a silly look on his face, which mad Tali burst out in laugh once again. Suddenly she flipped over in the water. She panicked as she suddenly couldn't move, couldn't breath and couldn't see. She struggled with trying to flip herself back, to be able to move even, but to no avail._

Tali gasped for air as she woke up and herself away from the bed she was lying on. She noticed that she had been lying face-down in the pillow, something that she had caught herself doing before, but it had not really mattered before since then there was a helmet between her face and the pillow.

Strangely, Tali did not feel sick at all, despite the fact that she had been outside of her suit, in fact naked, for the entire night. _"Those can't have been normal antibiotics; they must have been modified. Makes sense since I found them in Mordin's lab..."_she though.

The quarian looked around the room, still gasping from almost suffocating. The clock on the small drawer showed 9:59 am. Shepard was not lying in the bed, but the sound of flowing water came from the shower in the bathroom.

Tali had never been in a shower. She wondered how it was to feel the water stream down your body. She played with the idea of going into the bathroom and join Shepard, but she dismissed it as she remembered that she didn't know how much more time the antibiotics would work; it could be only a few minutes.

As she was about to turn around on her back and sit up, she stopped in mid-movement as she felt a cold, wet feeling between her legs from the night before. She had received it after their first intimate night together too, before the Omega 4 relay. She had found it quite difficult to concentrate at the mission and at the same time having that wet feeling inside her suit. At least this time it had occurred before she got into her fabric prison.

The quarian uttered a grunt that expressed how disgusting it felt, before sitting up and looking down to her most private part. A sheet was lying on top of her lower body, something that may explain why she had been wearing the lower part of a bikini in her dream. Of course, the sheet had received a moist spot that could be clearly seen, even from afar. She found herself to be lucky that these quarters where private.

Tali took a napkin on the drawer next to her that funny-boy Shepard must have placed there when he saw the spot on the sheet. Tali removed the sheet and was something close to shocked to find a huge stain, almost a pool, of the unmentionable liquid on the bed sheet. She blushed and tried to wipe off her body part that was also unmentionable with the napkin, a little embarrassed over the action itself and hugely embarrassed over the whole situation.

Of course, it had to work in the way that the rubbing motions her hand made while trying to wipe it off, caused more to just sip out, since there was apparently a little left and, annoyingly enough, her body perceived it as a sexually arousing action. _"Damn you Shepard. You always have to put me in this situation, don't you?"_

Tali sighed as the napkin was immediately wet through and worthless. As she tried to figure out how to solve this dilemma, she scratched her head, only to be shocked to find that her head was filled with some some strange, scratchy things.

She took a mirror that also was lying on the drawer; funny-boy Shepard must have seen it too. She looked in it and found that what was spread across her scalp was actually light-blue stubble. "I have hair?"she asked herself out loud and was dumbfounded over how stupid the question sounded.

She studied her stubble-covered scalp and imagined how it would look like, all long and swaying. She imagined how beautiful it would look. She imagined how it would look eventually if she didn't have to cut it eventually to prevent it from being in the way and hinder her eyesight, or that it would maybe fall off due to lack of oxygen in the helmet. If those things wouldn't happen, it would be one step closer to perfection of her life.

An idea suddenly struck her. _"The suit!"_after the collector base, she had received an auto-cleaning program to her suit from Mordin, mainly to be used at an occasion such as this. You could say that Tali was a little embarrassed to tell the professor of her problem though. It had taken a little while for her to finally get the words out.

Tali got out of the bed and walked over to her suit that was lying on the floor in front of the empty fish tank, which cast a weak, blue light over the room. The suit was lying there mainly because that's where Shepard had first..."inserted his link"...

The young woman stepped into her suits lower part and prepared herself for how nasty it would feel, before pulling it up to around her waist. The feeling she had been waiting for came and she let out another disgusted grunt.

* * *

As Shepard walked out of the shower, he saw that Tali had almost put on her entire suit and she had activated the suits auto-cleaning procedure. The only things missing was her faceplate, which she was now looking for. "Looking for something?"he asked rhetorically and held up the faceplate which he had taken with him into the bathroom.

The quarian quickly stood up and turned around, only to see the commander standing there with new clothes, wet hair and her faceplate in his right hand. "Where was it?"she asked.

Shepard made a sly smile as he held the faceplate high above his head, out of range for the quarian that had just walked over to him and was trying to grab it. "Oh you would really like to know that, wouldn't you?"

Tali stopped her efforts to reach the visor, and instead crossed her arms, put her body weight on her left leg and looked at him with her classical "don't-be-silly" look. Shepard smiled again; he always found it fun to annoy her a little bit. He knew what the "don't-be-silly" look meant though. "It was in the bathroom. I took it there."

The woman in front of him raised an eyebrow. "Now why did you do that?"she asked, but she already knew that it had to be another of Shepards shenanigans. She found it hard to believe that such a heroic commander could be so immature sometimes. Yet again, so could she.

Shepards smile turned to a grin; this was clearly another of his "sinister plans". She gave him a light punch on the chest. "Just tell me already!"

"Only if you kiss me."was Shepards response. Tali sighed and leaned in and kissed him on the lips. The kiss was originally meant to be short, but she found herself not wanting to stop just yet. The wet feeling in her suit came back.

As they pushed away from each other, the commander had that sly grin on his face again. "That was why." the answer revealed the obvious to the quarian and she let out a deep, annoyed sigh. She had enjoyed the kiss herself, but she didn't want to show Shepard that he had ultimate victory.

The human chuckled and handed over the faceplate to the quarian, before noticing the little accident that had occurred to the bed sheets. "Um...Tali?"he nodded towards the bed and the quarian looked in the direction indicated. The woman squealed as she saw the drenched bed sheets again and she looked at the, once again, smiling Shepard. Shepard slowly shook his head and was extremely close to bursting into laughter. "Man, I'm really too good!"he joked, which made the mood of the room turn from embarrassment to laughter.

Garrus and Miranda was once again standing behind the door to the life support and locked through the open crack of the door and at the elevator as it opened, but this time it was Miranda that was looking.

As Shepard and Tali once again stepped out of the elevator together, the ex-Cerberus officer shook her head. When the quarian put her head against the commander's shoulder and her hands at his lower arm as they walked for the mess hall, all second-guesses disappeared.

Miranda looked at the turian next to her and sighed. "There's no doubt about it. They're together alright."she said.

The turian soldier sighed as well. "Well, what now?"he asked. Miranda sunk into thoughts, trying to find an answer to just that. Everybody (except Shepard and Tali of course) knew that they where spying on the couple and everybody thought that she was doing it out of curiousness.

The truth was that she was not curious, but jealous. She was jealous at the fact that Shepard had picked Tali before her. That he had picked not only someone else, but a **quarian** at that! She had been completely humiliated before the crew when Shepard had rejected her right in front of them. She wanted Tali to be humiliated just as much, if not more. She knew exactly how it would happen.

Miranda turned to Garrus and nodded towards the elevator doors. "Come on! Let's go see what they've been up to!"she whispered. The turian was a little hesitant and looked around the room, a little unsure of what to do, but he then nodded slowly at the woman.

Miranda stood up and picked up a small video camera that was lying in a box next to her. She had a feeling it would come in handy in this little espionage. _"Their relationship is their dear little secret isn't it? Sorry Tali, but the media thirsts for your privacy."_

She opened the door and walked towards the elevator. Garrus was right behind her. They stepped into the elevator and pressed the button to the captains quarters; that area was private, but there was nothing that could really stop them from entering since Shepard never locked his door.

* * *

As the elevator came into movement, Garrus caught himself wondering if he would really do this; they already knew that Tali and Shepard where a couple. What more did Miranda want? _"What's she up to? That smile of hers, the pleased look on her face, and that camera of hers? What's she up to?"_he had no answers for his questions, but he had an idea...

As the cart came to a halt, the doors opened and Miranda walked past him and into the quarters, seeming to be impatient to do whatever she had in mind. He walked towards the door, but about halfway, he heard a glassy clink under his left foot. He removed it from it's position on the floor to see a small pile of broken glass. It looked like remains of a syringe. A syringe of antibiotics. "Yeah, they've been doing something here alright."he whispered to himself.

The turian stepped into the captains quarters to find two things: first, a bed with sheets that where in a complete mess; someone seem to have been quick to change them. Too quick. Secondly, he saw Miranda standing on a chair in the corner to the left of the bed, trying to reach up to a high-sitting air-vent on the wall. She turned her head and looked at him. "Garrus, can you give me a hand?" she said and pointed at the vent as he got closer. He stopped next to the fish tank.

Garrus raised one of his brow plates. "With what?"he asked. When he saw Miranda pointed at the camera that she had put on the drawer next to the bed, and then back at the air vent, it hit him as if it had been beaten into his head with a sledgehammer.

He looked at the ex-Cerberus officer. "Do you really think this is a good idea? To invade their privacy like this? We already know that they're together! I advice you to not put up a camera to spy on them."

The woman let out a short laugh. "Really now Garrus, help me up! Don't you want to know what they're up to up here?"

The turian looked down into the floor and sighed, but as he was about to take a step towards her, he remembered what he had promised himself about this. _"This is wrong! This is clearly wrong!"_he had promised himself to stop spying when his conscience told him so, and now it did.

He looked back up at Miranda and shook his head. "No. If you're going though with this, then I don't want any part in it! You're on your own!"he turned around and began walking back to the elevator.

Garrus could hear Miranda shout his name when he exited the room. He looked through the open door at Miranda, which was still standing there, looking at him. She shook her head and continued trying to reach up to remove the grid to the air vent.

Garrus stepped into the elevator and pressed the third floor. As the elevator doors closed and the car came to movement once again, only three words passed through his head.

"_Over the line..."_


	9. Chapter 8:Company

Shepard walked into the mess hall with Tali next to him, leaning her head against his shoulder. As they found the room to be empty, except mess sergeant Rupert Gardner, but luckily there was a small wall in the way for eyesight. Shepard realized that if anyone would have been in that room, all their efforts to, at least for now, keep their relationship a secret would have been for nothing.

Tali must have thought of that too. She quickly removed her head from his shoulder and let go of his arm. It seemed his little joke upstairs made them completely forget about keeping it secret from the crew. Shepard hadn't really figured out yet why he wanted their relationship to be secret, but he felt that he didn't want the crew to know, Tali didn't want the crew to know, but they had to know...eventually.

Behind them, Shepard suddenly heard the elevator move, but he didn't give it much thought; the elevator is in use nearly the whole time.

Like out of perfect timing, a crewman, Haley Michaels, stepped out of the med bay, only a few seconds after Tali had removed herself from Shepard. There where no signs of any close bond between the commander and the quarian, much less of any love; all that could be seen was two people standing on each side of a table, since they had walked over to each chair to sit down before the crewman entered the room. As she walked past though, Michaels gave them a suspicious look; the words seemed to spread, even though they where not confirmed.

As the crewman exited the room and seemed to head for the elevator, Shepard looked at Tali, who simply shrugged. He thought over the past week. He thought about the crew, the ship, what they had done. It suddenly hit him that when they had stepped out of the elevator, he saw that the door to the observation deck was open. Besides Samara sitting there meditating; after the collector run, she had decided to stay in Shepards crew, where she thought she could do more work than on any planet, he also saw through the large window that they where barely moving, not at all actually.

Shepard turned to Tali. "Can you wait here a bit? I have to go check something with Joker."he said to the quarian and stood up from his chair.

Tali looked at the commander and shrugged again. "Okay..." The human nodded at her and walked towards the elevator. When he got to the doors, he saw that the elevator was already on it's way down. Shepard crossed his arms and waited for it to stop. The doors suddenly opened and Garrus stepped out with a look on his face that told Shepard that the turian was deep in thoughts. Garrus walked past Shepard and continued towards the mess hall, like he didn't even notice him.

The doors opened and Shepard stepped into the CIC. Since the ship was not moving, there was not much work for the crew to deal with, so most of them where just having little conversations or where no even there.

As Shepard headed for the bridge, the thoughts and wonders flew through his head like hornets; all buzzing and making themselves reminded, while it was impossible to focus on just one. He tried to keep the thoughts out by concentrating on the light, metallic sound his boots made as they hit the floor, as cadenced as a ticking clock.

When he finally reached the chair where Jeff "Joker" Moreau was sitting, the pilot looked up at him with the look of a little boy who had just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Shepard crossed his arms and leaned back at a panel. "Joker, why is the ship not moving?"

Joker had obviously expected just that question. "Well commander, we are uhh...well...yeah, we're out of fuel..."the bearded pilot shrugged and made a very fake smile. Shepard grabbed his nose bridge with his right hand, closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh; there was always something that went wrong on his missions.

The commander looked up at Joker. "And why didn't you tell me earlier?"he asked the man sitting in front of him. It was clear that he was annoyed. Very annoyed.

EDI appeared to the right of Shepard. "Jeff wanted to solve the problem himself before you noticed there even was any, Shepard"the AI said.

The situation suddenly made Shepard very tired. He once again turned to the man that was supposed to be his ships pilot, who had now turned around his chair. "So we've been standing still all this time, just because of your technological vanity?"

Joker stretched his back and made a bad attempt at seeming angry. "Hey it's not tech...alright, yeah..." he threw his hands up next to his head. "Sorry..."

Shepard didn't want to listen to any apologies. They where stuck in the middle of space without fuel, and they didn't have enough minerals to put the engines on backup drive. All because the pilot forgot to check the fuel levels. He walked out of the cockpit and let out a loud, frustrated grunt and threw with his hands towards the walls, drawing the attention of most of the crew.

* * *

Tali saw Shepard return to his place in front of her at the table. He did not look happy as he sat there, probably trying figure out what to say to her. After about a minute, he looked up at her. "We're going to be here for a while..."he said finally. "We're out of fuel and we don't have enough mineral resources to put the engines on backup drive."

The words hit Tali like a fist to the face. Her eyes widened and she found herself speechless.

"W-What are we going to do?"she finally managed to stutter. The thought of being trapped in the middle of nowhere scared her. It would be easier to find a needle in a haystack, and since Joker had accidentally spilled some soda onto the circuits of the communication radio a few days ago, they wouldn't be able to call for help. They could activate a distress beacon, but it could take days for someone to respond to it. You could never know who respond to it neither.

Shepard shrugged. "I guess we'll have to activate the distress beacon, despite the risk. There really is no other option...we really have to upgrade the circuits in the radio in the future."

Hours passed. Tali was sitting by Shepards private console, trying to kill some time with researching about Earth and the creatures that lived there. It had taken some time for her to find a copy of the site she was on that was written in khaleesh, the quarian language, instead of the humans english. Shepard, that was sitting in the couch, had to help her a bit, since the instructions and menus was also written in english.

When she came across a page about an animal type called "snake", she was very close to bursting into laughter; she found their legless body, their large head and the enormous size of some of them, together with the two previous, completely ridiculous. She thought it looked like a giant hose crawling around on the ground. The laughs that where swelling inside of her was beginning to get too intense and she let out short, light giggles.

Tali saw Shepard stand up and look at her through the glass of his model ship display. "What's so funny?"he asked the quarian with a wondering look on his face.

Tali's snickering did not seem to stop. "It's just...it's just that...look!"her giggling turned into a full laugh as Shepard walked over to her to see what was so hilarious.

As the commander saw the picture of the large, green creature that was on the page, Tali saw by the look on his face that he failed to see what was funny. Made sense since it's from his world. Tali, on the other hand, did a very poor job in keeping her laughing fit in. She pointed at the picture. "Can't you see? It looks totally ridiculous!"she laughed out loud. The quarian put her hand on her faceplate and continued to laugh as the tears began running down her face.

A smile appeared on Shepards lips. "Is it really that funny?"he asked her. She couldn't talk; she was too busy laughing. Instead, she nodded violently in response. "Well I wouldn't really call them ridiculous. The snakes are one of the most dangerous animal groups on Earth you know."

Shepards comment made Tali's stomach hurt as another violent burst of laughing arrived. "Th-that? De...de...dangerous?"the quarian had a very hard time talking due to her seemingly endless guffaw. "That one doesn't look like it would be able to h-hurt an insect even!"

Shepard put his right hand on her left shoulder. "You know, you got a very beautiful laugh." Tali looked at him. She gave him a light punch on the shoulder before returning to her laughing cascade. "I got something to show you then...as soon as you've calmed down."

It took another five minutes until Tali was able to concentrate on what Shepard was going to show her. Her stomach hurt, her lungs hurt, it hurt to breath, fer face hurt since she had accidentally broken several blood vessels, but her spirit had never been better.

The quarians laughing had turned back to a giggle as Shepard clicked a few buttons and a new page came up. There was a video in the page. "May I introduce you to the puff adder!"he pressed play.

The video started and you could see a relatively small, brown snake, lying on a small glass table. A salarians voice could be heard in the background, talking about how graceful, magnificent and fascinating he found this animal to be, an opinion Tali did not share.

"To demonstrate the exceptional abilities of this creature, we start with a balloon, a human invention, filled with cold water."the salarian, who seemed to be either a scientist or extremely fascinated, said and, from out of sight, put a strange piece of white rubber that kind of looked like a ball when filled with water, in front of the snake. When the animal did not react, the salarian pulled the balloon back.

At first Tali thought the experiment was a failure and did not feel particularly impressed, but then the salarian began speaking again. "The animal did not react to the cold water at all, but watch what happens when I use a balloon with **warm** water!" As another balloon, black this time, entered the picture and was held near the snake, it cuddled up at the table.

As the balloon came closer, Tali jerked as it suddenly exploded, drenching the table with warm water. The salarian resumed his classing. "Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating. The ournos, or "snake" in the human language, has little biological heat sensors that allows..."Tali's lack of interest in the subject made the scientist's words sound more like "Bla bla bla.";she was fully concentrated to find out what the hell just happened. The words of blessing finally came: "Let's take that in slow-motion, shall we?"

The scene with the balloon suddenly reappeared, this time much slower. As the balloon closed in on the legless animal, Tali saw to her amazement how it suddenly opened it's mouth and plunged towards the object. Two large fangs, which reminder her of her own, since they are both longer and sharper than Shepards, turned out from it's palate and quickly punctured the black rubber, all in a split second.

Tali sat there, dumbfounded, as Shepard closed the page and they where back at the previous one. She looked at the human, which stood there, bent over to look at the screen, smiling at her. "Doesn't seem so ridiculous no more, does it?"he said and once again put his hand on her shoulder.

The quarian shook her head. "No..."she said. She could not find any other words. At least not to say. _"It seems some things are not what they appear to be..."_she thought to herself.

* * *

Shepard felt that he was close to laughing this time, as he saw the Tali's surprised look behind her visor. As he began thinking about her, he felt himself, once again, falling into fantasy and daydreams. He was interrupted, however, by Joker over the speakers. "Uh, commander? You gotta see this..."the pilot's voice had a hint of worry and maybe a little fear. Shepard looked at Tali and she looked at him. Their eyes met and Shepard suddenly felt that he was ready for whatever that may lie ahead of him. The couple nodded at each other and Shepard walked towards the elevator.

"What is it Joker? Did someone get our distress call?"the commander asked his pilot as he entered the cockpit. What he saw then answered his question. Right in front of them was a ship, the size of a turian battle cruiser. In it's front it had large pulse cannons that seemed very anxious over firing, in the back, it had two or three large engines, impossible to see from the side. If it had a third engine, it was in the middle of the other two.

The hull was completely black-painted and had a relatively round shape, that made it look like a jagged, cut off cable with copper wire sticking out in the front, which in fact was the two cannons and some large, spiky adds that Shepard guessed was nothing but decoration. The command bridge was on the top of the large vessel; it's cobalt glass shining in the light from the sun they just blocked from the Normandy.

On it's side, large, white, jagged letters saying: "Black Beard". Underneath the large signature was an even larger Jolly Roger painted and decorated with things as a red bandana, a gold tooth, red-glowing eyes and a sword hanging from one of the bones that went in a cross behind the human skull. Joker nodded. "Yeah. Someone got it alright."

Shepard studied the large ship that was hovering in space right in front of them. _"Pirates. Great! Just what we need right now! An empty fuel tank and a shitload of pirates!"_

The radio suddenly sparked to life. "Ohoy thar ye landlubbers!"a voice was heard over the radio. It was the voice of a human man, probably around his forty's, and apparently liked talking in the way of the old pirates back on Earth, long before the relays where discovered. The voice was also speaking with the same, scottish accent as Ken Donnelly down in engineering. "This is cap'n McSullivan of the SS Black Beard." the voice continued. "With whom have I thee dishonor of speakin'?"

Shepard shook his head; by the way this McSullivan spoke, you would think that he was more of a wannabe pirate, rather than a real one, but judging from the scratches and scorch marks on the hull of his ship, he had clearly seen some action. He then remembered that the radio wasn't supposed to be working.

He looked at Joker who was next to him. "Wasn't the radio out of function?" he asked the man.

Joker shook his head. "No, that's just long-range transmissions; on short range they function perfectly. Now say something to cap'n McSullivan before he decides to get pissed off."

Shepard leaned in on the radio panel. "This is commander Shepard of the Normandy. What..." he was cut of by the pirate captain.

"Shepard? I've heard of ya. Heard yer kind of a badass, am I right?" the pirate said. "Well ye aint no challenge fer me and me crew though ye aint. Ha! Mind if we board yer ship, co-man-da?"

Shepard sighed. This pirate's cockiness seemed to know no borders. "Yes I think I would. If you want anything from this ship, you're gonna have to give a little more effort."he said into the radio.

The captain on the other end gave out a satisfied grunt, like that was exactly the answer he wanted. Without even minding shutting off the radio, or make any attempt at all to stop Shepard from hearing, he shouted out to the crew in what was most likely the command bridge. "A'ight boys! Take'm down and I'l give ya a barrel O' whiskey each!" loud, happy cheers drenched the radio.

Shepard let out another sigh and was about to turn off the radio, when the captain began speaking again. "Say Shepard? Do ye happ'n to have any women on board? The guys would really like some pussy to the drink!" with that, another happy cheer from the other end drenched the radio. "Ah, screw it! I'll find out meself." The radio sparked as the signal was cut.

Joker looked at Shepard. "We still have the Thanix cannon. You want me to blow them away?"

EDI appeared next to the pilot. "I would not recommend that; blowing up a ship that size on this distance will cripple or destroy the Normandy as well."the AI proclaimed.

"EDI's right." Shepard said half-heartedly. "We're gonna have to do this the old fashioned way." he pressed the intercom to transmit his voice over the entire ship. "Attention crew. We're gonna have some company. I suggest you grab a gun and take defensive posture. I repeat: defensive posture." The crew in the CIC reacted immediately and went for the armory to get an AR.

As he was about to head there as well, Shepard heard a silent hiss and a few clicks. He turned around and saw Joker pull out an assault rifle from a hidden space under the hologram panel for ship controls. He raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't I know of that?"

The pilot shrugged. "Well, I kinda thought it would be cooler to reveal it through a situation such as this. Besides: I wouldn't really have anywhere to hide, so I might as well be of use." Shepard didn't know whether to nod at the second part of Joker's comment, or shake his head to the first part. He solved his dilemma by simply waving at the pilot to follow him.

Shepard and Joker got to where the rest of the crew on that floor had set up the defensive posture that Shepard had talked about, right in front of the walkway towards the cockpit. From there, they would get a decent foothold, and if they wouldn't have to retreat, they would be able to keep the pirates from spreading through the ship, if the people on the other floors did just as well.

* * *

Joker felt his heart quicken, as the ship suddenly shook, signaling that the pirate vessel had "docked" the Normandy. _"How the hell am I gonna survive this? My arms hurt, just by holding the rifle; it wouldn't be too good if I suddenly broke my arms in the heat of combat!"_

The pilot looked around the barricade that had been set up. Almost everybody seemed to be as nervous as him. Only the ones who's **job** was to fight seemed calm; Mordin, Jacob, Zaeed and Shepard, who was next to him, where the only ones on that deck that had any particular combat training.

A large ringing in Joker's ears appeared, as an explosion suddenly occurred to his left. He heard Shepard shout something and he looked towards the direction from which the explosion had happened.

His heart froze, as he saw hordes of pirates, with both ranged- and melee weapons, storm through several holes in the hull, where something that seemed to work as "boarding walkways" had been put in.

Joker suddenly got back the part of his hearing that was lost to the explosions. He saw Shepard quickly turn to face the incoming hordes. "Open fire!"the commander shouted as he began cutting down the army of space bandits with his Revenant assault rifle; the rest of the crew joining the wall of fire and heat shortly.


	10. Chapter 9:Hey, ho and a bottle of rum

Shepards assault rifle let out a dry click as it overheated and could no longer be fired. He pressed a button on the side of the rifle and it ejected it's thermal clip, only to load in a new one. He had already used four of his eighty-round clips on the pirates, and they still kept coming. From the beginning, Shepard had counted in his mind how many bandits he had shot. When he lost track after sixty, he decided to not think about it and just shoot instead.

The pirates had, to Shepard's relief, no armor or shielding, unlike everyone of the Normandy; even the crewmen had combat shields applied in this occasion. Instead, the pack of thieves and murderers relied solely on ferocity and sheer numbers. The pirates "uniforms" where so random that some even had gasmasks while others didn't. Some had eyepatches while others had mechanical eyes. Bionic arms and legs could also be found among the rabble. Shepard had even seen one with a mechanical lower jaw. As for weaponry, some of the pirates had simple lead pipes, machetes or swords, while others had assault rifles, shotguns or heavy pistols.

The commander looked to his right and saw one of the pirates aiming at him with a pulse rifle. Under the black bandana that the thug had tied around his face, Shepard knew that he was smiling. He quickly turned around and fired a couple of rounds in the pirate's face, splitting his head and spraying blood and brains all over the wall that was behind him.

As he saw the gory kill he just made, Shepard let out a grunt of annoyance. _"Why do these weapons have to be so overpowered? It's gonna be a bitch cleaning this mess up!"_

Shepard suddenly saw something in the corner of his eye. He turned back to where the hostiles where storming into the Normandy, only to see another thug in an ancient gasmask, just about to hit him in the head with a sledgehammer. However, before the man in front of Shepard could fulfill his plans of caving in the commander's skull, a throwing knife suddenly appeared in his eye and he fell lifeless to the floor. Shepard looked at the direction the knife had come from, only to see Zaeed looking at him. Shepard made a thankful nod at the mercenary before returning to the onslaught ahead.

When Shepard once again "emptied" his thermal clip, he had lost track of time and numbers. As far as he knew, they could have been fighting for days and killed thousands of pirates. When Mordin threw a shock grenade, one of the professor's prototype inventions, it cleared two of the "hallways" that had pierced the hull of the ship, with a cacophony of screams in pain, and Shepard released a breath he didn't knew he had been holding.

Although they had recently attacked, seemingly without fear or concern for their own well-being, Shepard saw on the remaining pirates faces that their courage was beginning to falter; they had lost hundreds of their companions and comrades, while the Normandy had lost none. There where still a complete horde of them left, so they showed no signs of wanting to stop attacking.

Shepards rifle let out another dry click as he used up his last thermal clip. Most of the crew had also run out of ammo, so they where firing with their heavy pistols. The considerable reduction of firepower let even more pirates into the ship and even spread around a little. This resulted in Shepard not having time to switch to any other weapon on his back, so he dropped his rifle and quickly pulled his knife that he had strapped on his thigh.

The human jumped over the barricade that he was behind and slit the throat of a thug aiming a Scimitar shotgun at Joker, before stabbing a woman with a Predator heavy pistol in the chest. Her eyes widened and she got a shocked look on her face as she saw the metal blade in her chest. She coughed up some blood before Shepard pulled the knife out and she fell dead.

All of a sudden, Shepards eyesight went dark and blurry, as his head exploded with pain. He became dizzy and fell down to his knees and kept his arms as support. His head pounded and he felt like he was going to vomit. He tried to figure out what had happened, but found himself barely able to think.

Shepard turned around on his back and saw a pirate standing with a Lancer assault rifle. Instead of the barrel, it was the rifle butt that was facing him. Most likely, the pirate had rifle-butted him in the back of his head.

The thug turned around his rifle and pointed the barrel at the commander. A wide grin spread across the the bandit's scarred face. Shepard felt the eyes of the man look at him through the black, shiny goggles.

As the man raised his rifle and put the barrel right in front of Shepard's face, the commander felt time slow down. Shepard heard the firefight as silent noise in the background. He heard more pirates screaming in agony as they got ripped apart by Jacob's biotic field.. He swore he could hear the bald, goggle-wearing man in front of him slowly squeeze the trigger.

Shepard had nearly given up all hope of surviving, when he suddenly, like a godsend, heard Joker, who had detected his troubled situation, shout his name. In the slow-motion speed that only was in Shepards mind, the bald pirate slowly turned his head towards Joker with a questioning look, before getting shot back to the stone age by the pilot's ravaging happy trigger-finger. Joker actually shot so many times, that the pirate's clothes had caught fire. He only stopped shooting when his rifle had overheated.

Shepard got back up on his feet as fast as he could, readying his knife to strike again. He then noticed that they had run out of pirates. Instead, there where now bodies lying like a sheet across the floor. The walls, the floor, the crew, even the ceiling, all covered in blood. Shepard then also noticed that all the pirates where humans. A fact that he hadn't given much thought before.

Shepard looked at his crew. None of them had died in the attack. There where barely any injuries neither, except Joker who had broken his right thumb by the recoil while making the bald pirate look like cheese. He then looked to his other direction where the walkways where protruding from the hull. Far in the back of the walkways where doors that where probably the only thing preventing the crew of the vessel to be sucked out in space if the walkways are ever blown off. In two of the walkways, the doors where shut and sealed, but in the third, hey had apparently been damaged and where still unlocked.

Shepard activated the radio in his omnitool and signaled to his entire team. "Squad, report! We've cleared the CIC. No casualties."he said into the radio.

A few sparkles could be heard, followed by the voice of an exhausted Garrus. "Crew deck cleared commander. Three wounded crewmen, one of them badly. None dead."

Shepard nodded. He was not surprised that they had managed to hold out so well. After all, Garrus, Miranda, Grunt, Jack, Legion, Samara, Thane, Kasumi and most of the crew was down on the third floor, while him, Mordin, Jacob, Zaeed, Joker and a part of the crew had managed to hold out.

Shepard's heart froze as he remembered that the only ones that where down in engineering was Tali and five crewmen. "Tali! What's your status?" he said in the radio. No answer. "Tali! Report!" he almost shouted at his omnitool.

At first the radio was dead-silent, but suddenly it sparkled to life and he could hear Tali's voice.

"Going to hell Shepard!"the quarian shouted from the other side, trying to make herself heard over the radio. Shepard didn't know whether to be happy to hear her voice, or worried over her situation. "Crewmen Fawkes, Gonzales and Marks are dead! Gabby is badly hurt and I don't know about Ken! Could you lend me a hand here!" A scream of agony could be heard together with the sound of Tali firing her shotgun.

When he heard how the situation was, Shepard's mind decided to be worried instead of happy. "Hold on, I'll be there!"he shouted into the radio so Tali would hear him over the cacophony of firing weapons in the background.

An explosion could be heard from the other end, followed by Tali's voice. "Good, because I really need some AHH!"the signal from her suddenly went dead and Shepard felt a very genuine stream of fear flow through him. He was not afraid that she would be dead; his mind didn't want to accept that as a possibility. He was afraid that she would be hurt badly.

"Well...that didn't sound good." Jack's voice transmitted over the omnitool radio. Shepard didn't register Jack's comment. He stood there, trying to think. Trying to figure out the situation.

"S-stay where you are. I'll go get Tali."Shepard said. He dismissed an objection from Garrus by saying that he needed them there in case the pirates came back, but what he really wanted was to get to be alone with Tali, whether she was alive or not. He walked over to the elevator doors, only to find them out of function. He turned to Mordin. "Get this ting going!"

A loud, cracking sound was heard as the pirate that Tali had recently high-kicked in the head, hit the rail with his neck, breaking it instantly. She raised her shotgun to blow a hole in the head of a large, muscular man that smelled like cheese and garlic, when a young woman, seemingly in athletic shape, kicked it out of her hands, sending it gliding across the floor.

Tali quickly dodged a large fist, almost three times the size of hers, pulled the knife that was strapped on her shin and then put her hands on the floor behind her. She put her weight into her hands and made a backflip, kicking the large man in the lower jaw in the process, sending him out cold.

Tali landed back on her feet, her right knee in the floor and her right hand held high in the air behind her, while her other leg was standing on its foot with her left hand on the knee. The quarian laughed inside her mind. _"Shepard knows that I'm both military and mechanically trained, but he doesn't know that I'm also a little of an acrobatic!"_

She looked up at the other woman, who was standing dumbfounded over Tali's knockout. Tali guessed that she wasn't as agile as her, but was unfortunately proved wrong when young pirate suddenly did a number of cartwheels, followed by a backflip. She ended up standing right in front of the quarian.

The woman couldn't have been much over twenty. Pretty young, even for a pirate. She was wearing a black, zip-less leather jacket that only went a small bit below her ribcage. Underneath, she wore a red T-shirt with some human letters on that Tali didn't recognize. On her legs she had a pair of very tight, stonewashed jeans, a material that humans had been wearing for hundreds of years apparently. On the woman's feet where a pair of black boots with a zip on it's side, instead of laces. Her hair was colored red and was set up in a shaggy punk-style. She had also a very dark makeup on her eyelids and lashes. Tali found her to look basically like a bitch.

As Tali stood up, the young pirate made a high-kick towards the quarian's face. Bad move. Tali easily dodged the kick and jumped up at the wall to her left, right above her working panel, kicked off and kicked the human in her very exposed back. Tali did everything so fast that the other woman had no time to react. The blow in the back came completely unexpected and she flew into the rail, where she cracked her skull at the cold metal. _"She wasn't so good as she thought, after all."_

The quarian heard running to her left and turned her head to see more pirates running towards her. A smile grew on her face as she felt she was beginning to get cocky. She made a quick cartwheel, jumped with a frontflip and landed on the shoulders of the thug in the front of the small army. If Tali hadn't broken his neck almost instantly with a snapping twist of her body, the pirate would probably have enjoyed the view. Tali jumped off the bandit, who fell to the floor with a heavy thud, and, with a quick movement of her knife, cut the throat of a hostile who was unlucky enough to be within arms range.

The man grabbed his throat when he realized that it was springing with warm blood, before he too fell dead to the cold, metallic floor of the Normandy. Tali had killed surely around thirty pirates all by herself, but they showed no signs of decreasing in numbers, and she was getting tired and winded. She heard the gunfire blaze on the floor above, together with screams of agony. She could only imagine how many where up there if there where this many down here; the engineering room in not exactly a top-priority place to strike.

As she heard a whining sound, Tali automatically dodged something that she didn't even know what it was yet. A loud clang was heard as a large object that Tali didn't recognize, hit the wall next to her. It looked like a very large version of the human tool called "hammer". She figured that the tool that was in front of her was what she had heard of as a "sledgehammer".

The person who had swung it was a large, robust woman with a pink mohawk, something that Tali had seen human juveniles have in different colors on, among other places, Omega, and more piercings than she thought should be legal. The large woman had piercings in her ears, her nose, her eyebrows, hell, even her tongue. _"How the hell can they think that looks good?" _Tali did find the human version of tattoos nice; she particularly liked the large tattoo on Shepard's back that he said resembled something called a "Chinese dragon", but piercing? Small metal pieces through your skin? Tali did not find that as nice.

The woman raised her large hammer to smash Tali's faceplate into smithereens, but as she ran towards her, Tali took a nonchalant step aside, put her and in the back of the head of the large woman and used the woman's own speed, together with a little added power to bash her head into the wall, face first. As Tali turned to the rest of the bandits, she heard a tired groan from the large woman behind her, followed by the classical thud of another pirate hitting the floor.

Tali smiled when she saw that the rest of the pirates had now stopped, and where now standing at the terminals where Ken and Gabby used to work with unsure looks on their faces. The tables turned, however, when the door behind the pirates opened and they received rifle-armed reinforcements. It was now the pirates that where smiling and Tali standing there with an unsure look on her face. The only difference was that her expression could not be seen.

Tali looked back to where her shotgun had disappeared and saw it lying right next to the door that Shepard used to sneak behind her and take her by surprise. The quarian threw herself towards her gun as the space thugs opened fire; no time for fancy acrobatics now. However, as she did so, she tripped over the unconscious body of the large woman she recently knocked and fell to the floor after about halfway to her gun.

Tali screamed in pain as she landed with her full weight on her left shoulder. She struggled, trying to crawl towards her shotgun, as she found herself not being able to move her arm. For every feet she made, her shoulder exploded with pain, like there where two knives grinding against each other inside her shoulder.

Although it felt like knives, Tali knew very well what it was: she had just broken or dislocated her shoulder, she hoped for the latter, and bone was now grinding bone. She had experienced this kind of pain before, on the original Normandy, when it had exploded, a piece of flying debris had broken her femur and she had felt the same bone-to-bone grinding pain; she had to work like hell to make it to the escape pods. She was still feeling guilty for engineer Adams' death; if he hadn't stopped to help her to the escape pod, he wouldn't have gotten that piece of debris on him, and maybe he would still be alive.

When Tali finally got to her shotgun, well behind cover behind the some pipes, she attended to her shoulder. She found to her relief that her shoulder was only dislocated, even if seriously, and she slowly tried to correct it. She let out a painful groan as her shoulder popped back into place and she found herself being able to move her arm again, now that joints and nerves could work unimpededly.

Tali suddenly returned to reality when she heard footsteps close in on her. The pirates had stopped firing and was now going to check if they had hit their mark. Fortunately for Tali, the pirates where stupid enough to send just one to check. The stream of gunfire resumed when a shotgun blast was heard and their comrade got his brain spread all over the wall behind him.

Tali leaned back on the rail and counted the seconds as the wall in front of her was slowly torn apart by itchy trigger-fingers. Suddenly, the radio sparked to life and she could hear Shepard's voice. "Squad, report! We've cleared the CIC. No casualties." Tali felt a knot in her heart loosen when she heard the voice of the man of her life, heard that he was alright.

"Crew deck cleared commander. Three wounded crewmen, one of them badly. None dead."Tali heard a winded Garrus proclaim.

Tali let out a relieved sigh when she heard of the well outcome. The outcome that had not occurred down in engineering. She remembered when the attack had hit. When some strange tings that looked like hallways, suddenly pierced through the hull down in the cargo hold, killing crewman William Fawkes. Then the pirates had stormed out and Tali had seen one of them crack the skull of the unarmed crewman Caesar Gonzales with a pipe.

Tali had ran into the room where Gabby was standing by her terminal, holding onto it to not fall by the sudden quake. Ken was nowhere to be seen. If Shepard had warned of any attack, then the comm link to engineering must be dysfunctional or something. To the engineers, the attack had come without warning. Tali had rushed with locking the door she came in through. The door that she was sitting by right now. Unfortunately, she did not have time to lock the other door before the pirates stormed out of the elevator and into the room, where they had mutilated crewman Veronica Marks with gunfire and one had shot Gabby, who had walked over to Tali to see what she was doing, and was now sitting to the left in front of her.

It had taken a few seconds after Garrus' comment that Tali was brought back to reality by Shepards voice. "Tali! What's your status?" the commander asked through the comm radio in his omnitool.

Tali instantly tried to activate her comm link, but it seemed the small mechanism for doing that had been damaged in her painful fall. As she attempted to get the comm link functional, he heard the voice of Shepard again. "Tali! Report!" The worry in his voice made her fasten her work even more; she wanted to talk to him. To tell him that she was okay.

She finally got her comm link open and she shouted over the radio. "Going to hell Shepard!"she remembered the fate of all the crewmen. "Crewmen Fawkes, Gonzales and Marks are dead!" the quarian looked at Gabby, who was sitting against the wall in front of her, trying to keep pressure on a bullet wound in the stomach. "Gabby is badly hurt..."Tali looked at the door next to her, like she was going to see through the doors and walls of the ship and see where Donnelly where at. "...and I don't know about Ken! Could you lend me a hand here!" She leaned out of cover and shot one og the thugs with her shotgun, making him scream in pain as he hit the floor.

The radio gave away a few waves of static before she could hear Shepards voice again. "Hold on, I'll be there!"she heard Shepard shout. Tali smiled over that little detail in what he said: "**I'll** be there!"

"Good." she said in the radio, and didn't notice that the gunfire had one again stopped and footsteps where closing in on her. "...because I really need some AHH!"she was cut off by a slam in the back of her head and she fell down to the floor. As her vision became darker, she saw the large, bald man that she had knocked earlier standing there, the knuckles on his right hand bleeding a little bit from hitting the back of her helmet. She saw the man lift her left arm up in the air and tear off her omnitool and break it with a light crack.

Then everything went dark...


	11. Chapter 10:What really matters

Tali slowly opened her eyes and found herself lying on her stomach on the floor of the lower part of the engineering, where Jack usually hangs out. She tried to move, but noticed that she had thick ropes tied around her wrists and ankles. Tali felt confusion strike her. Why would she be lying down in Jack's hidey hole, bound by her hands and legs?

The young woman looked up to see if anyone was around. When she saw the group of men and women that was standing by the wall, the memories struck her like of a hammer. The attack, the pirates, the large man with the smell of cheese and garlic, the crewmen, and Gabby, all came back to her in an instant.

Tali scanned the pirates in front of her. Her glance switched from one thug to another, until she saw one turn his head up and see that she was very much awake. He was wearing a fully covering gasmask of some human model, where large filters where hanging on both sides. He was also wearing a black suit with a white shirt and black tie, which where hanging on the mans body in a careless way; suit open, shirt dirty, tie hanging loose, all increasing in the punk theme of not caring. A belt was strapped around his waist, holding up all possible kinds of explosives: HE grenades, napalm bombs, flashbang grenades, even a few anti-personnel mines. On his hands he had a pair of black gloves and typical, white sneakers on his feet. In the light dim, Tali saw a golden cross of some sort hang around his neck. Tali had seen those crosses before, on the outside of human churches on Illium; quarians are not allowed in those buildings, as the men in there thinks that they will steal anything not welded to the floor. Although Tali had always been interested in human culture (more so now when she's got a human boyfriend), she decided that this was not the best time to think about that.

The masked pirate slapped the thigh of another standing next to him with the top of his hand. "Yo! She's awake!"he said. His voice was wheezy and gave the impression that he needed that mask to breath. When the thug gained the attention of the ones around him, he nodded at Tali, making everyone look at her.

The large man that had knocked Tali walked over to her with a smile on his lips. The quarian grunted as the foul odor that seemed to walk hand-in-hand with the man returned; she really wished she could reach her omnitool and turn off her helmet's olfactory filters. The large man grabbed Tali by one of the straps on Tali's back that they seemed to have loosened up for just that purpose, and put her in a sitting position against a wall, right next to Jack's bed.

The man in the gasmask sat down on the bed; the brown eyes behind the glass darting intensely between different spots on her body, often stopping on places that Tali did not feel comfortable of him watching. She tried to ignore the person intruding on her private space and focused on the rest of the group. There where sixteen of them: the large man, the woman who had tried to murder her with a sledgehammer, and now had a broken nose, the man in gasmask next to her and a couple of more people that she didn't recognize.

Another man, of which the word "pervert" screamed out just by looking at him, stepped out of the crowd. He was a pretty gaunt man with a light green shirt, dark brown pants and a pair of black boots on his feet. His hair, as well as his long, black beard, was extremely shaggy and looked like it hadn't been washed in years, as did the rest of him. Although he did not smell like cheese and garlic, he instead brought with him a stench of a mix of a number of things, from curry to old sweat to a dense smell of burned tobacco. On his right hand he had some kind of metal covered glove.

The downright disgusting man's face broke up in a wide grin and Tali let out a silent "Ugh" as she saw that he was missing several teeth and the ones remaining where yellow at an extreme. "What's yer name li'l flower?"the man cackled. He had an accent that was almost like Donnelly's, but not quite. When Tali said nothing, the man tilted his head to the side and another disgusting grin grew on his face. "Tell you what: you tell me you're name and I'll tell you mine, so that you can scream it all night long."as he let out another cackle and turned to his companions, of which most of them shook their heads over the cockroach of a man, Tali leaned back her head, ready to strike.

The man turned back to Tali and instantly received a helmet in his face, making his nose spring in blood. He backed off a few feet, grunting on pain, before striking Tali hard with what she had once heard Joker mention as a "pimp slap" with his right hand. Tali made a loud grunt as the metal glove collided with the side of her helmet, sending her to the floor. The man turned back to the rest of the group. "That's why I put this on." he laughed.

As Tali sat back up, she received another slap, sending her back into the hard, metal floor. This time, the man pulled her up, only to hit her down again, and again. The slaps didn't hurt. She just found it annoying being hit into the floor time after time, but the man in green shirt didn't know that. As far as he, and everyone else knew, she could be bleeding inside that helmet.

"Enough!" a voice broke the irregular pattern of metal meeting metal, and everyone looked in the direction the voice had came from, including Tali, who had just been dragged up from the floor again for another hit from the glove.

There, halfway down the stairs to the right in the room, stood a muscular man, looking at the crowd. He was wearing a dark orange vest, black shirt, blue pants made by a material that could not be recognized from this distance, and a pair of black boots. His left eye was apparently missing and had been replaced with an eyepatch. A thin scar went from halfway up the left side of his forehead, down to only a few inches below the eyepatch. His hair was short and black, maybe colored, and had a thick "stripe" of silver or gray running almost vertically, from his left temple, down behind his ear. Something about him told Tali that he was leading this piece of rabble.

Tali threw a short glance at the man that was doing a very poor attempt at abusing her. She saw a hint of anger and hate burn for a short second in the pirates eyes at the man he was currently locking his sights on, before painting a feigned, but yet convincing smile onto his face.

"Well, look who comes hippety-hoppeting right in here..."the green-shirted man said with an intentionally mocking tone in his voice, as he turned towards the one-eyed man standing there, dropping Tali and leaving her there, sitting on the floor against the wall. "If it ain't thee great clopsy-man?"

Tali realized what the strange accent the man was speaking in fact was. She had went to special classes right before she got out on her pilgrimage, to learn more about the other spices in the galaxy; the humans being known for having the widest variety of languages, dialects and accents. Since the teacher, or ejash in the words of kaleesh, had gone through a long list of different accents for different languages, Tali had lost interest almost immediately and instead slept through most of the class; ejash Jako'Seel vas Rayya had always seemed to want to teach the young quarians more than they would bother learning. Although Tali had ignored the majority of the teacher's words, she remembered a few of the accents: the Indian, the Italian, the Slavic, which sounded strangely like the quarian accent for english. Then of course, the Scottish, which Ken Donnely used. The one that the man in green shirt was speaking had to be the one named Irish. It sounded quite like the recordings that she had in her vague memories of the classes.

As the one-eyed pirate made his way down the stairs, everybody in the room stood still, waiting for something to happen. As he made his way through the small tribe of murderers and thieves, he received an isolated "Cyclops..."from each of the thugs.

As Cyclops, as the leader of the gang was apparently called, got over to Tali, the man in gasmask stood up and nodded at the officer in front of him. "Cyclops..."the wheezy, almost guttural voice was heard from beneath the layers of plastic, glass and air filters that formed the man's mask.

The officer threw a glance at the masked pirate, before nodding back. "Boom..."he said, calling the masked thug by his nickname, apparently. Tali was not really surprised that he was called "Boom", considering what the man is carrying around in his belt; he had enough explosives to blow away the whole Normandy if he wanted.

The man called Cyclops then turned to the man in green shirt, the last obstacle in his way in front of Tali. The one-eyed man stared at the Irishman. "Move, Irish..."he said coldly.

At first, the man called Irish didn't even flinch at the orders of his superior officer; he didn't seem to like the fact that Cyclops was running the show. After a few moments though, he lowered his sights and took a slow step to the side, expressing his displeasure with a silent grunt.

The pirate officer crouched down to Tali's height and looked at her. At first, Tali locked her eyes at the floor to the right behind the pirate, but finally raised her head and met his piercing glance. Although the pirate's remaining eye looked much like Shepards; blue with a small hint of gray near the pupil, it did not have that softness that her own commander had. That softness of which she always lost herself into. Instead of kind and soft, the pirate's eye burned with hate and cruelty, like a window into his ruthless and calculating mind. At first, Tali had thought that the one-eyed man told the green-shirted one to stop hitting her because he was afraid of her well-being. That he would be kinder to her than the others. She realized now though, that those thoughts had been nothing but a remaining fragment of the naivety that she had during her days on the original Normandy. This man was just like the rest of them, if not worse.

"Pretty li'l flower, ain't she?"Tali heard the man called Irish say from behind Cyclops. The comment brought an unsettling smile on the pirate officer's face.

The one-eyed man grabbed Tali's hood with his left thumb and forefinger and lifted it up slightly, like he was inspecting it. "Just wait 'til we get off these leaves..."Tali's eyes widened as the words made her heart explode with fear. They where not going to kill her with a gunshot, but violate her and have her die by diseases.

The pirate suddenly pulled down her hood, making it fall down on her shoulders like any other rag. Tali didn't move, but her heart began beating faster and faster as the thug slowly put his hand on her faceplate to remove it from it's place. She closed her eyes and quietly prayed to Keelah that, through some miracle, she would make it through this. All her hope ran out, however, as she heard the silent hiss of the seals to the plate loosened. In any second, it would be removed and she would face the same fate as her mother did all those years ago. Time suddenly seemed to slow down and images of her life flew past in her mind. Her mothers death, the classes she had on the Rayya, her pilgrimage, her first meeting with Shepard, the destruction of the Normandy, Freedoms progress, Haestrom, their first night together, all the way to this very moment.

As her thoughts fell on Shepard, she felt the tears slowly beginning to run down her face. She wanted to be with him again. To feel his arms wrap around her in a loving embrace. To hear his voice speaking to her, soft and calming. To look into those kind, blue eyes that always filled her heart and mind with hope, joy and love. She wanted to feel his skin on hers, to stroke her naked hand through his short, black hair. To lock her lips together with his and feel the emotions flow through her body. She wanted to do this, if only for one last time.

As Tali felt the hand of the pirate beginning to pull in her visor, she suddenly heard a voice shout something in the background and the hand dropped it's grip around her helmet, just before it got loose enough to let in any bacteria.

She saw Cyclops turn to where the voice had came from, and time suddenly turned to it's normal rate. "What!"he shouted back to the voice, who had apparently called his name. There was much more than just a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Yo, someone's coming down the elevator!"the voice, which came from upstairs shouted.

The bandit officer's face lit up in a mix of anger and surprise. "What! I didn't authorize..."he was cut off by gunfire from above the stairs, together with a scream of agony from the man who was up there. The sounds where followed by a heavy, metallic thud as the bandit above hit the floor.

The man in gasmask, called Boom, jerked over the sudden attack and rushed off the bed, letting out a loud "Fuck!"as he ran for his rifle that was leaned against the wall in front of him. Tali felt hope refill her fully and instantly. She knew exactly who it was that had shot the pirate upstairs. "Tali!"the voice of the commander simply confirmed her thoughts.

Tali tried to get up from the floor and run up to Shepard right now, but the ropes made themselves reminded. "John!"she shouted back, as she couldn't get anywhere. Another short burst of bullets where heard from upstairs, followed by another scream.

Cyclops turned to his squad. "Alright guys!"he almost shouted to the people in the room. "It seems the bitch's boyfriend is here. Grab a gun and kill the fuck!"

Tali made a sinister smile under her faceplate as the pirates gathered they're weapons and prepared for the incoming threat. _"Yeah, you just try it..."_

* * *

As Shepard was standing in the elevator that Mordin had just fixed, he silently cursed over that the elevator had to be so damn slow. He impatiently shifted his position from leg to leg, while double-checking the condition of his rifle and spare ammo. He didn't want to think of what may have happened to Tali when the radio went dead. All he knew was that he had to get to her.

When the cart neared it's destination, he heard someone running outside of the doors. As soon as the doors opened, he rushed out and went to his right, while he heard someone shouting from behind the door in front of him. A short memory of when Grunt had walked past him through that door flew into his head, but he ignored it.

The door burst open and Shepard saw one of the pirates leaning over the rail, shouting down to the floor below. He instinctively fired his rifle, sending the pirate screaming to the floor. The gunshots where followed by a few shouts, among them a loud, wheezy "Fuck!". He had now clearly made his presence known.

"Tali!"he cried out to see if she was here, or even alive. A large knot in his chest loosened as he heard the familiar voice of a quarian shout his name from the floor below. As the area downstairs went turmoil, Shepard quickly turned to his right and fired at another pirate who rushed through another door with a large machete.

"Alright guys!"Shepard heard the voice of a man from downstairs. "It seems the bitch's boyfriend is here. Grab a gun and kill the fuck!" Shepard laughed silently at the words. They could just try it...

Shepard fired a few more rounds into a thug that was stupid enough to try to approach by simply running up the stairs. The pirate was instantly cut down and fell face-down into the floor. Another bandit tried to just take a peek out from under the walkway, while firing at him with a Predator heavy pistol. Before the thug even managed to take down Shepard's shields, his head was split by a lone round from the commanders assault rifle. As Shepard had predicted though, it wouldn't be quite as easy with the rest of the pirates as it was with the first two. What looked like an oblong can was thrown up, right in front of his face. As he realized what the object was, it was already too late.

The small grenade exploded with a blinding light and a deafening bang. Shepard covered his eyes and took several steps back, unaware that he had just dropped his rifle. As he slowly got his vision back, the first thing Shepard sees is a gloved fist that hits his face, sending him to the floor. He saw three persons suddenly standing in front of him: a robust woman with a pink mohawk, broken nose and a sledgehammer in hand, an even larger man that had a mysterious smell of cheese and something else. Maybe garlic. In front of the two was another man, around the size of Shepard, with a dirty suit, an old gasmask on his head and a belt full of explosives around his waist.

The man in the gasmask let out an extremely wheezy laugh, like he had a lot of mucus in his throat and was trying to get it out; Shepard guessed on damaged lungs. The laugh was followed by the woman swinging her large hammer down at the commander. He quickly rolled to the side, making the hammer hit nothing but metal floor. He then kicked the woman in the face, making her drop her hammer and back away a few feet. Shepard seized the opportunity and grabbed the sledgehammer and got back up on his feet as fast as he could, while he kicked the masked man's rifle out of his hands, sending it down the stairs.

Shepard studied his opponents that where right in front of him, while they did the same to him. They had gotten into a tricky situation and everyone of them knew it; one false move by anyone of them and he or she could die. Shepard had no time to pick up his assault rifle. He had to do this the hard way.

After about ten seconds, the large, smelling man seemed to tire of waiting and charged at Shepard with his large fist. Shepard dodged the fist, if only barely, and smacked his temporary weapon in the back of the large mans head, making a loud, bone-breaking crack and the muscular pirate fell limp to the floor. Shepard quickly turned back to the remaining two and dodged a swing from the large woman, who had picked up the machete that was dropped by the one that Shepard had shot before. He grabbed the woman's right arm with his one hand and the large knife that she was holding in the other, separating the two. He then quickly swept his arm around her neck and broke it with a sudden twist, making another body go limp.

The last of the three, the masked one, quickly pounced on Shepard, sending him to the floor and dropping the machete he had just attained. He sat on top of the commander, punching hi repeatedly in the face, making his nose and mouth spring in warm, red blood. Shepard stretched after something to defend himself with in blindness; he didn't have much of a chance to look around with a fist hitting him every two seconds. He finally got hold of something that felt like a handle and, with something that could only be explained as a war cry, swung it violently through the air and towards the masked pirate's head.

The beating stopped and the pirate began jerking violently while making an unnerving, guttural sound as his brain and nerve center was destroyed. Shepard looked at the thug's head and found that he had just hit him in with the machete the woman had just dropped, and was now buried in the suit-wearing pirate's head, right above the glass lens that covered his left eye.

Shepard pulled out the large knife from the man's forehead and rolled the, still jerking body away from him. The commander stood up, winded, and thought through the recent seconds to try to get a grip on his situation. He finally got his mind straight and looked at the place he had dropped his rifle. The rifle was lying just by the rail of the walkway with about a fourth of it hanging over the edge and in the air. Shepard walked over to his weapon and picked it up. He wiped off some blood that had been spilled on it during the fight as best as he could, then threw a last glance at the suit and gasmask wearing body on the floor that was still jerking in nervous spasms. He looked at the belt that was hanging around the man's waist an felt an idea grow in his head.

* * *

Tali was sitting by the wall, watching as the pirates set up defenses. She wanted to call out to Shepard and tell him of the situation, but after being promised a shot in the head if she said a word, she had managed to keep her mouth shut. She saw as the man called Boom threw up a flashbang at the stairs, probably blinding Shepard. The pirate then ran up the stairs together with the large cheese-and-garlic man and the woman that she had broken the nose of earlier. Judging from the noises that came from up the stairs afterwards told that the attack hadn't gone too well. Now they where just waiting for something to happen.

Tali looked at the stairs that the others had ran up and hoped that he would come down that way. Although he would immediately receive heavy fire, he would at least have a good chance with his shielding, unlike he would by the stairs by the other side, where they had placed a proximity mine.

All suddenly happened in a matter of seconds: a small clang was heard as a similar grenade as Boom had thrown fell down on the floor right in front of the barricade. Before anyone could react, the grenade blew up and Tali found herself temporarily deaf. She had managed to turn her head to the side before the grenade blew off though, so she was not blinded.

Tali then saw Shepard practically jump down the stairs. Only silent noise was heard as the barrel of his assault rifle lit up time after time, quickly cutting down the guarding forces, including the one called Irish. She saw Cyclops rise from his seat in front of her and turn around the corner with a shotgun, only to get a machete thrown in his remaining eye.

The heavy thud of the pirate officer falling lifeless to the floor was the signal Tali got that she had regained her hearing. She looked up at Shepard who quickly ran to her, throwing away his rifle to the side. Tali leaned towards him so that he could crouch down and cut the ropes that held her hands in place.

The first thing Tali's arms did when Shepard had cut them free was to move from behind her back, to around Shepards neck as she threw herself at him. She held him as hard and firmly as she possibly could, while resting her head against his right shoulder. Shepard was caught off-guard by the sudden embrace, but soon responded it with an equally tight grip.

Tali felt the tears stream down her cheeks. "I though I would never see you again..."she whispered into his ear, and realized how true those words where. "I thought I...I thought..."

"There, there Tali..."she heard Shepard whisper back as she felt his hand slowly rub her back, sending that familiar warm feeling that she always got from him. "We're together now, that's what matters."

As they sat there, Tali lost track of time. All she thought about was Shepard, her and Them as a whole. They would still have to get away from the pirate vessel, unite the galaxy and defeat the reapers, but that didn't matter now. They had been through so much, lost so much, seen so much, but that didn't matter now. They where there now, holding onto each other, almost afraid that the other would disappear if they let go. They where together here and now, feeling the love for the other burn in their heart, feeling each others breath, sharing each others joy. They where together now...

...that's what matters...

* * *

***Authors note: I was kinda disappointed with this ending. I got a lock-down in my head and began improvising. I hope it will suffice anyway.**


	12. Chapter 11:Counterstrike

***Authors note: I apologize for the chapter being so late, but the file went corrupted and I had to reconstruct it, which took some time. I hope it will be worth your waiting.**

"Shepard, do you copy?"the voice of Garrus over the radio brought Shepard back to reality. He pushed away from the quarian he was sitting with on the floor, while she did the same. They looked each other in the eyes and Shepard saw on her that she was just as unwilling to let go as he was, but they both knew that they couldn't sit there forever.

After a few seconds, Tali nodded slowly at him, and his hand began traveling to his ear, where his radio transmitter was sitting. "I'm here, Garrus. I've got Tali with me."he reported, his eyes never leaving the ones of the woman in front of her.

The radio gave away a few waves of static, although not enough to obstruct communications. "Good to hear that you're not dead, you two."the voice of the turian said. "It would be hard to await your orders if you where..."

Shepard smiled. Even in situations like this, the turian always managed to crack some kind of joke, even if most of them aren't really that funny. He stood up. "You want orders, do you? You..."he stopped when he noticed that Tali's legs where still bound, which was giving her trouble to stand up. "Hold on..." He reached down to the rope holding the quarian's feet together and cut them off with his knife, allowing her to get back up standing.

Shepard opens up his omnitool and presses a few buttons, making the radio transmit to the entire team. "Alright. Garrus, Samara, Legion, Thane, Miranda, Jack, get up to the CIC and wait for me there."the broadcast is followed by short, confirming grunts from most of those from the list. "Grunt, Mordin, I need you on the crew deck; Gabby is badly hurt and I need you, Mordin, together with Chakwas help her, as well as the other wounded." he heard a short sound from the krogan on the other end, signaling that he had just opened his mouth to let out an objection. "Before you ask, Grunt: if the pirates decide to come back, I need someone that can fight for the most of the day, in order to protect the med-bay. In other words, I need you."

Shepard heard a confirming, yet unsatisfied drone from the krogan, before he turned off his radio. Grunt did not seem happy with getting left behind the front lines, but this time it was necessary. "What about me, Shepard?"he heard Kasumi's voice ask.

The commander smiled. Somehow he had managed to forget about her. He turned his radio back on, but only for a short while this time. "Well, why don't you accompany Grunt?" he said, before hearing a neutral "Okay."in response.

Shepard turned to Tali, who was still standing there, watching him. "Come on." she said and turned to the stairs where he had just stormed down. "We have to help Gabby."

Gabby let out a painful groan and pressed her hand harder at her wound as Shepard and Tali helped her up from the floor. They slipped in under her arms and placed them on their shoulders, putting most of her weight on them. For every small step, Gabby made another silent groan, as her blood kept running down from the bullet wound in her abdomen. It would have been much easier if the trigger happy pirates hadn't shot the first-aid box to oblivion.

The crewman's eyes widened and she gasped silently as they, after a few steps, made it out of the door that Tali had locked before. Shepard looked to where her eyes rested, and noticed that she was looking at the man in the suit and gasmask, who was still twitching on the floor, if only slightly now. According to Tali, the pirates had called that man "Boom", and with no surprise. _"I seem to have hit him pretty hard..."_he thought, as he studied the corpse lying in a pool of his own blood. As they walked past the body of the dead man, Shepard saw his brown eyes look up, like at the wound in his head, with an empty glance behind the glass lenses. Shepard found himself wondering if the man was somewhere else now, or if he simply ceased to exist.

The door to the elevator let out a light hiss as it split up in the center and opened. The trio stepped in and Shepard pressed the button for the crew deck. As the doors closed and the cart came into movement, everything went quiet. No sound of engines. No sound of beeping computers. Nothing but the regular panting from Gabby, as her wound drained more and more of her energy; she would die without treatment.

The elevator ride seemed to take much longer than normal, almost an eternity. But eventually, the doors slid open, and they headed for the medical bay, where Grunt was now standing outside with his Claymore heavy shotgun at the ready. As they approached, the krogan gave a quick nod and stepped to the side, allowing them to enter the room, before getting back to his post.

Painful groans and the smell of blood and burned flesh filled the air of the small med-bay. Chakwas was standing be one of the beds, wrapping bandages around the chest of a crewman who had apparently been stabbed, since there where no burns that could imply of a gunshot. Two other crewmen where lying in the beds, one of them, a woman, had several gunshot wounds around her left shoulder. The other was a man with a deep cut in his throat; the bleeding had been put under control with medi-gel, but not before covering his uniform and a large part of the bed in the red liquid.

"Ah, yes. Shepard, Tali'Zorah. You're here. Brought crewman Daniels. Very good."Shepard heard Mordin's voice and he turned his head from the patients, only to see the salarian standing right in front of them.

Tali shifted her position under Gabby's shoulder. "Yes. Could you take it from here?"she asked. The tone in her voice made it obvious how rhetorical the question was; she did not expect him to say no.

Mordin quickly turned his head, almost twitched, at Tali. "Yes. Of course. Will take care of her. Should be fine, should be fine. You two go up to CIC. Crew waiting for you there. Situation under control down here."he paused and drew a deep breath through his nostrils. "Unless pirates attack. Will be stressful then. SMG and shock mines can take care of those that our krogan miss."

"I never miss!"Grunt's voice was heard from outside the closed door. Everyone looked at the door for a couple of seconds, waiting for the krogan to say something more. When no further comment was heard from their guard outside, they turned their attention back to each other. Tali and Shepard slipped Gabby off their shoulders and handed her over to the professor, who, together with another crewman, grabbed her and carried her towards a vacant bed. Shepard looked at Tali, who was returning the glance, and waved for her to follow him as they walked back out from the room and towards the elevator. They had work to do.

* * *

"Three..."Garrus' grip around the handle of his rifle tightened. He began eagerly tapping the side of the rifle with his other hand. "Two..."His mind focused. He thought through all the double-checking he had done on the rifle, ensuring he hadn't missed anything. The atmosphere in the Combat Information Center tensed for every split second. "One..."His breathing intensified slightly as Shepard's lips formed the last word a few meters in front of him, where the walkway of which the door was damaged and still unlocked, ended. He saw Shepard press the button of the small detonator he had in his hand, and an explosion sounded off from the cargo hold. Instantly, loud shouts where heard from the other end of the door, followed by footsteps, which could have come from a small army by the sound of them, get weaker and weaker before eventually disappearing.

Garrus threw a short glance at Shepard, who was now smiling. It was obvious that the pirates would set up a barricade behind the unlocked door, probably consisting of most of them. Fortunately, all that was needed to fool them was a small explosion by another door, several floors below. Now most of them thought that the attack was taking place much lower down, despite the tactical impracticality, leaving the unlocked door relatively unguarded. Garrus couldn't help but smile, or at least make the turian equivalent, to the pirates' ignorance in warfare; by the time they realize their mistake, it will already be too late.

Seconds after the explosion, Shepard sounded a go, and the whole squad of ten, including Shepard, quickly moved for the door. As they got close to the door, Garrus raised his rifle, preparing for the firefight that would have to come.

The attack on the pirate vessel started with Zaeed throwing himself through the recently appeared crack in the center of the unlocked door, in a way that would have made Joker babble for weeks about how cool it was. In his dynamic entrance, the mercenary cut down several remaining guards with his assault rifle. When the door fully opened, Zaeed had already flown through with his entire body and landed on the floor, still firing his weapon towards a number of guards that had burrowed down in a barricade in front of them.

Garrus ran into the room and fired a burst of rounds into a thug who had just got out a throwing knife. The turian turned to his left and shot another thug, who was about to swing a large blade at Shepard's neck. The pirate was hit in the throat, which he grabbed, before falling limp to the floor.

After a short while, Garrus' rifle made a dry click as the thermal clip was overheated. He was about to reload, when a pirate jumped out from his right and almost stuck a combat knife in his head. Fortunately, before the knife could even scratch his brow plate, the wielder was thrown into a wall by a biotic field from Jack, crushing almost every bone in the mans body and leaving a huge blood stain on the wall behind the barricade.

The turians eyes shot open as he saw the one thing he hoped not to see in this occasion: a small group of pirates rushed through the door that was on the far end of the small room. One of them mounted a large weapon on one of the barricade walls. The weapon had a long barrel, double grips and a large box on it's side, containing hundreds of thermal clips; it could fire for an eternity. The perfect features for a heavy machine gun. Luckily, the meat grinder drew much attention, and the entire squad had noticed it and rushed for cover behind a few flipped tables, before the large gun threw out a deadly inferno of flames and heat.

The other bandits had pulled back, and those who hadn't had been cut down by friendly fire. Garrus ended up behind a table with Legion and Samara on his sides. He took the time to study the room; maybe figure out a way to not get blown to dust.

It was a small room with walls, floor and ceiling in a dull, metallic gray. There where not much furniture in the room; the tables must have been improvised cover that they brought when they realized that the door was unlocked. On the sides of the square room, large shelves had been placed, containing different kinds of weaponry and explosives. The only light came from a few lamps that where hanging in the ceiling, barely illuminating enough to see the hostiles in front of them. In front of them, the barricade was mostly made out of concrete blocks that had been dragged there. Heavy gunfire had now been added to the line of defense.

They where in great disadvantage. The pirates where all taking cover behind large concrete blocks, wielding all kinds of weapons, and a machine gun on their side, while they where holding out behind a few metal tables.

Garrus looked to his left, from his position of him having his back pressed against the table. He saw a determined look on Samara's face that he didn't know whether to feel happy or worried about. The turian was once again reminded of the power of biotics, when the justicar all of a sudden stood up, her body glowing in a bright blue. She threw up her arm and did her magic. The large box under the machine gun began shaking violently, before exploding in a sea of flames when the thermal clips inside all broke at once. The inferno filled the major part of the barricade, making the pirates scream desperately as their flesh and lungs where burned beyond recognition. The ones that where not caught in the flames, simply died from the murdering heat of being close to the spectacle.

The flames died out and the only thing that was left was silence, together with a dense odor of burned flesh. Garrus remained frozen in his position, like he was expecting more enemies to storm out of the door. When no additional hostiles came, the turian, as well as the rest of the squad slowly stood up to witness their recent work. Garrus looked at the others in the group. Most of them was covering their nose, like he was. Shepard didn't react to the foul stench; he just stood there, his eyes never leaving the door. Tali seemed to have turned off her helmet's olfactory filters, an ability that Garrus sometimes which he had.

* * *

After a short while, Shepard waved his hand, signaling the squad to follow him. They made their way to the burned, bloodstained door. The door cracked open, except for one component which seemed to have been damaged, revealing a large, three-way hallway. The few lamps that lit the hallway, together with the small space that made the hallways, gave a claustrophobic and slightly depressing aura of the ship. A few crates here and there where standing by the walls, shining in the typical metallic gray that seemed to have no end on this vessel.

Shepard studied the corridor in front of him, before turning to the two to his sides. The soft green light of a holopad for a door shined in the light dim of each of the corridors, around fifteen yards away in each direction. The commander turned to his squad.

"Alright, let's split up."he said. "Garrus, Jack, Legion, you take the door in front of us. Miranda, Jacob, Thane, you take the one to the left."he looked at the said people, who all gave a confirming nod. He turned to Tali, who was standing by the door-frame to his right. "Tali, you and Samara come with me through the door to the right here. Zaeed..."he turned to the mercenary, who was standing in front of the pack. "You guard this entrance; make sure they don't flank us."

Zaeed nodded with a satisfied smile on his face. Shepard knew what the mercenary was thinking: the pirates would send reinforcements as soon as they would realize they had been tricked, and they would surely come to the place where they where first posted, by some reason thinking they would still be there. In other words, he would get to see some action.

Shepard nodded at the hallway in front of him. "Move out!"the squad split up in the designated groups and moved towards their respective door. Shepard turned around to see Samara and Tali standing there, looking at him. He nodded at them and raised his weapon as he approached the door in the right hallway, the other two doing the same. He heard the light hisses of the other doors opening and closing as he neared his own mark. When they got to the door, they took cover by some crates that where standing in front of it. The doors weren't locked. Unlocked doors where almost always a sign of a trap.

Shepard looked at Tali and nodded at her. She opened up her omnitool and pressed a few buttons, opening the door manually. An even darker, empty hallway was the only thing that greeted them. They moved on further into the unknown vessel; every corner a possible ambush site.

They got to a place where the hallway turned abruptly to the right. Shepard pressed himself against the wall, just by the corner of the wall, trying to hear any potential hostiles; although his eyes had gotten almost completely used to the darkness, any pirates they would encounter in this hallway probably had some kind of night vision goggles, which would put him in a huge disadvantage. He felt a light bump on his side as someone walked into him when they tried to follow his lead in the darkness. The bump was followed by a silent, almost inaudible excuse from Tali.

Shepard ignored the bump, and instead concentrated as much as he could, trying to hear anything. A metallic click, a small step to the side, maybe even some silent breaths, anything that could imply that someone was around that corner. He waited, listened, for what seemed an eternity. When nothing could be heard, he turned to his companions and nodded at them, signaling for them to follow him.

Just when he was about to step into the other hallway, he heard some strange, silent noise from the other end of the long corridor, and he quickly dived back to his recent position. He looked at Tali who was right next to him. The small silver dots behind her faceplate that where her eyes looked at him, asking the question that she didn't dare to speak out loud, with fear of becoming the first quarian cheese. Shepard raised his left hand and pointed up his index finger in front of his lips and made a silent hush. Tali nodded, almost unnoticeable and Shepard turned back to his listening.

The sound he had heard, and was still hearing, sounded like someone trying to keep in a cough. Someone was there, knew that they where close and was probably not alone. After a few seconds, the attempts to keep the cough in proved futile, and the whole situation suddenly turned to Shepards advantage. He knew that they where there, while they had no way to be sure how close he was; he had the element of surprise on his side.

The commander turned to Samara, who was in the back of the lead, and made a few hand signals that the team had practiced during their hunt on the collectors. The order got through and the asari justicar nodded and walked past the other two while her left arm lit up in the classical blue, biotic light. Instead of walking out of the corner to face the barricaded pirates, the justicar threw up her arm and sent out a large blue ball that bounced to the side on the wall in front of them, placing it right in front of the barricade. The trio just managed to turn away their heads before a blinding light flooded the hallways; brighter than anything that could be done with a normal flash grenade. The light was accompanied with a loud, but not deafening bang, and was followed by painful screams from a dozen men who's eyes where probably burning, figuratively speaking. Shepard dived out of cover, unleashing the concentrated death that his rifle held and was shortly followed by his two companions.

Most of the pirates where cut down in seconds, since they where standing almost as close to each other as they could, in an effort to create a wall of gunfire. The hallway was, like all the other hallways on the ship, pretty narrow and didn't give the pirates much room to move; their tactical incompetence was worth laughing at.

Shepard saw one of the thugs get thrown up, screaming in the air and into the wall above the door in the end of the hallway by a large, blue, biotic wave. The man was rammed hard into the metal surface, where he stuck, as the wall itself was pressed in by the sheer force. The hard impact send a loud, dull noise echoing through the hallways. Biotics could sometimes be better than any gun.

Before long, the barricade seemed to have been completely emptied, but when they closed in, Tali had to use her shotgun to blow away what seemed to be the only survivor, a woman, as she rose from her cover in a last attempt to kill the intruders.

* * *

As the dead woman fell to the floor, her abdomen blown in pieces, the room was still not completely silent. Tali looked at a the wall to her right and saw a man sitting a few meters away, breathing heavily as he tried to keep pressure on a wound on his arm that was bleeding badly; the ball that Samara had shot was still lighting up the hallway, even if the light was no longer blinding, so she had no trouble seeing him. She walked over to the man and placed her right foot on his chest and positioned her shotgun in front of his forehead. "Where's the command bridge?"she asked coldly.

The man panicked and began babbling useless nonsense while pointing in different directions, often missing the parts that turned the random tones into real words. When Tali pressed her leg harder against his chest, he stopped babbling and instead pointed at the door to their left -the one they where guarding- with a shaking hand.

Tali looked at the door, then back at the man. "Thanks..."she said with the same cold tone. She then put all her weight on the leg that was placed on the mans chest and quickly spun around with her other leg outstretched, kicking him in the side of the head, sending him out cold. She ended her knock-out pirouette with jumping off the mans chest and landing on the floor. She looked to her right, where Shepard and Samara where standing. Samara didn't seem particularly surprised, but Shepard's jaw had dropped halfway to the floor. The sight of Shepard standing there dumbfounded brought out a giggle from Tali, before she turned around and began walking towards the door, graciously, yet discretely swaying her hips from side to side.

"So what are you planning to do when we find this McSullivan?" Tali asked Shepard as he and Samara caught up with her after a few yards into the next hallway that went through the door.

"Well..."Shepard said without looking at her; he had his eyes on every little corner that the dark hallway could hide. "That guy attacked us, destroyed our hull on at least six places and killed our crew..." There where a few seconds of silence. The only sound that was heard was the light clangs that where created by their shoes meeting the metal floor. Shepard then turned his head towards Tali with a grave look on his face. "Payback's a bitch."


	13. Chapter 12:Settling the score

"For gods sake! Why do ye have to be so incompetent? What the **hell** is so hard 'bout point 'n shoot!"the voice of the pirate captain roared through the loudspeakers that where placed all over the ship. The words made Shepard smile as he, Tali and Samara advanced through the dark corridors; closer and closer to the command bridge. McSullivan knew they where coming for him, and that his men didn't stand a chance. The message in the speakers was the final proving evidence of his growing panic.

With a loud cry of anger -or maybe desperation- a pirate jumped out of a corner with a knife in his hand, and quickly slammed Shepard into the floor with his own body weight. Since he landed in an extremely disadvantageous position on the floor, in addition with the pirate being on him, Shepard had to strain the muscles in his forearms and elbows to their breaking point to not get the knife slowly pressed into his skull.

Although he was at a clear disadvantage, he was quickly saved by Tali, who dug her right foot in between the thug's shoulder blades, before snapping the man's neck off with a quick twist. The man went limp on top of Shepard's chest, before the commander pushed him off as quickly as possible.

Shepard looked at the quarian that was now in front of him. He nodded thankfully at the woman, then slowly mad his way back up on his feet.

The commander threw a last glance at the attacker on the floor, who now had his head turned in an unnatural grade to the right. It was clear that the pirates where no longer fighting to take the Normandy. They where fighting for their lives. But if the Normandy was to ever get out of this place, they would all have to lose.

Further down the hallway, a red light from a room to the right broke the darkness of the corridors, but the shadows still filled the hallways only a few yards ahead. Inside the room to the right was a machine of some sort; looked like a large generator that covered the majority of the wall in front of them. Other than that, there was nothing in there. Shepard shrugged and turned to the darkness ahead of him, but just as he was about to move further into the ship, a speaker to their left sparked to life, and Shepard's eyes locked on the small device on the wall.

"Scorpio! Zeus!"the voice of McSullivan echoed through the hallways. "Get into that shithole ASAP and take those sons-of-bitches out!"Then the captain spoke with a lower voice. "Shepard, I know ye're hearing this. I want ye to say hello to two of me best men..."as he spoke, a large, armored boot stepped out from a corner to the right a few meters in front of them. "These two brothers come from the Juggernauts- maybe you've heard of 'em?"

From where the boot had stepped out, a large man -almost double the size of a normal human- slowly emerged from the shadows and entered the red light. Shepard threw a glance at Tali, who stared at the man through her faceplate, and she seemed frozen where she was on the metal floor.

Because the classical mechanized suit of the Juggernauts made the man so large, his head, as well as a part of his shoulders, where still covered in shadows, which made the eyes on the man's helmet glow like two large, round, blue lamps. When Shepard first saw the man, a quick thought of the Eclipse passed through his mind when he saw the dark yellow armor the mercenary was wearing. The only difference was that the helmet had a different construction and that instead of the Eclipse emblem on the chest and shoulders, the chest was fully yellow and the jagged form of a black lightning bolt decorated the large shoulder plates. The whole armor had a different construction than Eclipse armors, of course, but there was not much difference.

The man looked over Shepard to a place behind him, into the darkness. The silhouette of another man as large as the first stepped out of the corner that Shepard and his squad had just rounded, and slowly made his way towards them. Instead of the large round "lamps" that where the eyes on the first one's helmet, a straight line that ran horizontally across the upper section of the helmet glowed brightly in red in the darkness. This man had black armor of a slightly different design, with a red scorpion running across his chest.

Shepard threw his glance between the two men. The atmosphere of the area tensed for every second that passed. The men simply stood on their places like statues, staring at the commander and his squad. Shepard noticed that the man in yellow armor, the one he guessed was "Zeus" due to the lightning bolt painted on the armor, held a large machine gun in his hands. Although it was almost twice as large as the one they had encountered when they first boarded the vessel, it was clearly designed to be carried. The Juggernaut must have created them themselves specially to their heavy troops. The grips of the gun was placed on top of the large device, allowing it to be easily carried. Although the device had only one barrel, Shepard was certain that it could deliver considerable firepower.

A loud metallic click drew Shepard's attention to the man behind him. In his hands, the man in black armor held an assault rifle that was around the size of Shepard's leg. Aside from his huge rifle, the one that was probably "Scorpio" also had a large sword, och which the handle pointed out from behind his left shoulder. It seemed everything was in a larger scale when dealing with the Juggernaut.

The one called Scorpio pulled his eyes away from his gun after a few seconds, and instead placed them on his brother -if McSullivan was right. Shepard's glance traveled to Zeus, who was looking at Scorpio. Zeus made a quick nod and Shepard's eyes shot open when the mercenary raised his gun with the barrel pointing at him.

Instinctively, Shepard threw himself into the room to their right, shortly followed by his squad, before the room and hallways where drenched in the too familiar sound of gunshots a second later.

As they landed on the floor, Samara immediately used her biotics to tear out the machine that was in the wall and blocked the doorway with it, preventing the two men from getting to them, if only temporarily.

"There!"Tali burst out and pointed at a spot at the wall. Shepard looked at the spot indicated, and saw the grille of a ventilation duct right next to a large crate.

Shepard looked at Tali. "There could be anything in there, Tali. Remember when you went through the shafts in the collector base. Who knows what might be waiting for us in there?"As he finished, a loud bang was heard from the other end of their improvised blockade.

Tali was about to say something, but was interrupted by Samara. "What's better?"the asari shouted to make herself heard over the next loud bang. "Go in there and risk to die, or stay here and die for sure? Those two do not look like something we can defeat through brute force." Another bang was heard from outside the room. It was clear that they where trying to ram their way through.

After giving the barricade a quick glance, Shepard turned to his team. He knew that Samara was right. Those two would probably turn them into paste. He nodded. "Alright. Let's go."

The grille was torn off immediately by Samara's biotic field, and the three could easily crawl into the was not much space in the ducts. One person could have moved around in there without problem, but they where more than one. Shepard looked around from where he sat against the metal, as Samara used her biotics to move the crate from it's position next to the crate to in front of it. Above them was a fan spinning and blowing cool air down on them. They couldn't get up that way. There was a second grille to Shepard's left, opposite the one they came into. But that one led back into the hallways they had just exited. The problem was a fact.

The commander turned to his companions. "Alright...looks like we have to go back in there."he said half-heartedly. Just as he finished speaking, the regular banging sound of the large duo trying to get through the barricade was replaced by a much louder sound of metal hitting the floor and bending. They had made it in.

Shepard looked at the grilles to his left, then at the two women in front of him. "Let's go, fast as hell."he stated, then gathered most of his strength into his left leg and kicked the grill, sending it halfway to the other wall. The loud clatter that resulted made Shepard clench his teeth as he realized he may just have done something phenomenally stupid.

The commander made sure to waste no time. He quickly crawled out of the vent and waited for Tali and Samara to follow. Shepard looked to his left and saw, by the shadows caused by the red light in the room they had just left, Scorpio and Zeus tearing through the scrap that had been created when they made their way through the barrier. The amount of the scrap would be enough to stall any normal person for up to twenty minutes. Unfortunately, these two brothers where not normal. By the time Tali had made it out of the vent, only a few seconds after Shepard and Samara, the light clangs of heavy boots hitting the metal floor where already approaching.

"As commander of this operation, I suggest we run like hell!"Shepard exclaimed as Scorpio appeared from behind the corner with sword drawn, closely followed by Zeus and his machine gun. No one objected, and the three began running down the hallway in front of them. These parts where much more illuminated. Red lamps like the one in the machine room started to show up frequently. The metallic tapping of the trio running through the seemingly endless corridor gave Shepard a mental image of a gigantic running ant. But no matter how fast they ran, the heavy thuds of the two running juggernauts where always just a corner away.

After a while, Shepard saw a large metal door that looked like a blast door. He pointed at the door. "In there!"he panted, exhausted from all the recent running.

The door split up into two and opened, revealing a room that looked like it was used as a bunker. As soon as he was sure everyone had made it inside the room, Shepard turned to the door to close it. The door was of an old version. Instead of a holopad in the center of the door, there was an old, mechanical pad, one with buttons of metal, placed next to the door. Shepard pressed the "close" button, only to be met with disappointment. When he pressed, a lamp on the pad turned red for a second, and it simply let out a loud beep. He pressed again. Same thing. This ship was not only old, it was low-budget.

Shepard looked into the hallway in front of him, and saw Scorpio stop running. The commander began pressing the button frenetically, hoping the door would finally close. Shepard now saw that Scorpio lifted his sword high above his head, and hurled it at them in high speed. This made Shepard press the button even faster. When nothing happened, the human slammed his armored fist hard into the small console. "Goddammit, you piece of shit! Work!"he shouted angrily at the pad. He slammed his fist at it again, and like at a signal, the door shut, just in time for the large sword to hit the door, making a small bulk in the metal appear on their side. The room suddenly went silent. The only thing that was heard in the darkness that resulted when the door shut was their exhausted panting, and the light humming of a fan somewhere.

Suddenly, the room lit up by strong lamps along the floor, and shelves packed with guns, ammo and explosives in different shapes and sizes shot out of hatches in the walls. They where in an armory. That explained why the door looked like it could take an explosion, and also why the panel was of so old model; the tech-equipment that can hack these kind of locks have disappeared from the markets entirely, since no one believe that anyone uses them anymore. Unfortunately for the pirates, but fortunately for them, it seemed that the one who was in here last time forgot to lock the door when he left. But it seemed to have locked automatically now.

"So...what now?"Shepard heard Tali's voice behind him, and he turned to the woman. The quarian was sitting in the floor, right next to the also sitting Samara. Shepard then realized that he was also sitting. He must have dropped to the floor without noticing it as soon as the door had closed.

"Well..."Shepard started. He scanned the area, and saw another ventilation grille in the top-left corner of the room, above some shelves. He pointed at the grille. "There. We can go through that shaft."

Samara looked at the grille, then back at him in disbelief. "How can you be sure that it leads us the right way?"she asked.

"Well, if you want to go out that way, be my guest."Tali said sarcastically as she pointed at the door they had just closed. Samara nodded when she got the point: they really had no choice.

"Alright, we'll go through the vents..."Shepard stated as he tried to get on his feet, but he instantly hit the floor with a heavy thud when his legs gave away by exhaustion. He looked at his squad. "...But first we take a rest..."

"That may have been the best thing you have said today, Shepard." Tali teased, which brought a tired laugh from the human as he leaned against the wall behind him. Maybe it was.

* * *

Grunt was sitting outside the med-bay on a chair that he had put there, whistling in pure boredom. He didn't like being stationed there in any way, but a krogan that didn't follow his battlemaster's orders was not a krogan at all. He threw a glance at his shotgun that stood neatly in the corner next to him. He just wanted to grab it, rush in there, and blow those pirates into dust. But...he had his orders. He understood the need of him to be there in case the pirates tried anything, but this was not a task for a krogan. Not a task for him.

The warrior moved his look to the door of the med-bay. He found himself curious of what they where doing in there that took such a long time, but not curious enough to go in and check. He was more into sitting there on his place on the chair, continuing to hope that enemies would show up. So far, the odds of him seeing some action didn't look good. He let out a deep sigh.

A strange sound was suddenly heard from out of the open med-bay door, accompanied by a scream of pain. Mordin's voice was heard the second after. "Heavy bleeding! Doctor Chakwas, need assistance in closing the wound!"this made Grunt give out his signature laugh. The fact of how frail and fragile the bodies of all the other species where always managed to amuse the krogan. Human, stick your finger through his eye and he's a goner. Quarian, break the glass on his helmet and he'll die. Salarian, pull apart those things on his head and he'll not just die, he'll be mutilated. Turian, a hammer in the head and he's done. No need for guns, really. If not for that wonderful kick in your arm that you got when you fire a heavy shotgun...

Grunt suddenly realized that he was alone outside of the med-bay. Again! Where was that sneaky human now? "She better not be searching through my console..."the krogan muttered to himself.

"Why? What's in there?"the words made Grunt jump of his chair and crash into the floor. He looked behind him, only to see Kasumi standing behind the chair that he had been sitting on all along.

"Have you been standing there the whole time!"Grunt shouted angrily at the thief. He made an annoyed growl as a wide grin appeared on the woman's face. Another scream of pain was heard from inside the med-bay, which made Kasumi's grin fade away, and she instead threw an irritated glance at the door.

The woman walked over to the threshold, and with a few gracious movements of her fingers, the door shut with a light hiss, almost drowning the third floor with silence. She then turned to Grunt. "Only long enough to know that you're not a very good whistler..."the woman finally answered the krogan's question.

Grunt growled silently to himself as he made his way back on his feet. He pointed his finger at her and opened his mouth to express his disliking of her annoying way of acting, when voices where suddenly heard from the other end of the room, where the hallways where still penetrating the walls. It seemed that the voices came from behind one of the doors. They must have been shouting at each other, since they could be heard at all by the duo.

Grunt stretched back his arm and grabbed his shotgun without lowering his sight from the walkways. He cocked the gun with a single quick movement and pointed it in front of him. He turned to Kasumi to tell her to cloak, only to see that she was already gone. The krogan shrugged, then made his way closer to the walkway.

"Come on, you worms."Grunt muttered silently as the voices continued to speak behind one of the doors. Eventually, the krogan was able to make out two words.

"Blow it!"

* * *

"Stop!"a guard shouted at Shepard and his squad just outside what seemed to be the command bridge. The guard's head was quickly blown into pieces by a single rifle slug.

Shepard stood dumbfounded, looking at his new gun that he had found in the armory, from which smoke was now rising from the barrel. "Holy shit!"he looked at the side of the gun. "X-96e Mattock" had been pressed at the side with black letters. It seemed everything on this ship was old...except this. A wide smile spread across the commander's face. He raised the gun, making the barrel point up in the ceiling, while just holding it with one hand. "I'm keeping this baby!"

"You seem to have found a new friend, Shepard."Tali teased from where she stood behind him. The human turned around and looked at her, while imitating her "don't-be-silly" look. He immediately saw a smile grow beneath the tinted glass. Shepard had to fight not to smile back and grant the quarian her victory.

"Let's just get in there..."Shepard heard Samara from his left. He suddenly returned to reality and remembered the situation. Without saying a word, he turned to the door and approached it, making it obediently split open.

The resistance on the bridge was nothing to speak of. The few guards that where left there where easily cut down, especially by the newcomer in the Normandy's armory. A dark figure was standing with his back turned to them on top of a platform that lifted him up above the many chairs and control panels that scattered the room, eying out into the empty space. A large black trench coat covered most of the mans body, from the shoulders too the ankles. The man's hands where covered by a pair of black gloves and where laced together behind his back. His boots where also black, just like the boots of any pirate on this ship. The captain's scalp was only covered by a layer of thin, gray hair, and on top of his head, he had none at all.

Captain McSullivan turned his head towards Shepard, but not enough for the commander to see anything else about his face, other than that he looked old, either by age or by his way of living; constantly in fear of being blown up by government authorities. Maybe both.

"You know, Shepard, I still remember the day I got my own ship."the captain began speaking, like he was having a normal conversation. "It was forty years ago, back when we had just discovered the relay at Pluto." He turned his glance back to the empty void outside of the ship. "I started as a commander in the Alliance, worked me way up. Eventually, I got me hands on a real warship. Happiest fucking day of my life! But then I figured that I wouldn't move on further in this world in the military. So here I am. You know, Shepard, I was actually the first human intergalactic pirate this galaxy had ever seen! But, after my ship got blown the fuck up..."he threw his arms into the air. "...I've been stuck with this shithole. Now..."

"Save it, Sullivan."Shepard interrupted the captain, never letting his gun off the pirate's back. "You know what we want."

"Do I?"the captain asked rhetorically. He then finally turned around, revealing a face that was very scarred at best. The old man looked like he had been hit by flying shrapnel in an explosion. Maybe he had. Whatever the reason, most of McSullivan's face was covered in scar tissue. Shepard also noticed a small, blue tattoo that went next to the man's left eye. About half of the tattoo was covered by a black eye-patch, but the part that could be seen showed a simple pattern of swirls that spread in different directions from a much larger swirl, on which at least one turian symbol could be seen.

"Do you want my fuel- is that what you want?"the pirate continued. "So that you can get your dear Normandy out of here?"He had stopped talking like the old pirates from Earth, but his accent remained even wider than Ken's. "Or do you want payback for my attack against your ship? 'Cause I think we're kinda square on that point. Truth is, I don't know shit what you want.

A sinister smile appeared on the man's face. "Well, it doesn't matter anyway..."he stated as he pulled out a small detonator from a pocket inside the trench coat. "You see, I'm quite convinced I won't make it out of here alive. So I figured, why not take you with me?" he lifted the detonator up, for everyone to be seen. "I have had this whole bridge stuffed with explosives, enough to blow this room away from existence."His smile grew wider. "With the press of a button, boom."the man began laughing silently, while raising the detonator once more. As his hand holding the device got to a height he deemed sufficient, his laugh got louder. The captain's thumb pressed down the small button with a light click.

Shepard closed his eyes and clenched his teeth while he turned away his face, as he waited for the fatal explosion to come, and die a second time.

Nothing.

Shepard carefully opened his left eye, only to see to his joy that McSullivan was pressing frenetically at the detonation button. A small spark came out of the small device. It had probably broke in the short firefight that had occurred in the room they where in. The pirate looked at them, the cockiness now gone from his face, as well as his smile. That smile was now showing up on Shepard's face.

Shepard turned to his squad. "Which one of you want to shoot first?"he joked, as they all three raised their guns at the captain once again.

"We'll all shoot at the same time, so that no one will be sad."Tali joked back. Shepard could see that behind that faceplate, she was just as happy as he was right now.

The human made a short laugh. "Alright."he said, then turned to McSullivan with a sudden grave look on his face.

The pirate captain's shoulders dropped as he realized his sentence. "Aw, fuck me..."was all he managed to say before he was blown off the platform by gunfire. He landed hard on the floor, and a pool of blood soon began growing under him. So much for "the huge and famous captain McSullivan".

"Shepard? Do you read?"Miranda's voice was heard over the radio. By the humming sound in the background, she, Jacob and Thane seemed to be in the engine room.

Shepard lifted his hand to his ear and pressed the small earpiece that was placed there. "I read you, Miranda. What's your status?"

"We're in the engine room. We've found a way to get this ship's fuel into the Normandy; there's enough here to fill it twice, but we need special clearance from the command bridge. I guess you're there right now?"the ex-Cerberus agent responded.

Shepard nodded. "Yeah, we're there now."he looked at the control panel that McSullivan had just been standing by, and realized that he really had no idea what to do. "But that's not really my area of expertise."he continued. He looked at the quarian that was standing right next to him. "Tali?"

The quarian nodded, then reached up to the comm-link device on her helmet, while Shepard turned off his earpiece. "What do you need me to do?"the woman spoke as she walked towards the control panel. At the same time, Shepard caught eye on a door in the left corner behind him.

As the door opened, a room that was mostly full of boxes revealed itself before him. His eyes immediately caught sight of a visor that lied on top of a box. He picked up the device and put it on his head to test it. It fitted nicely. A memory came up in the commander's mind when he had seen a visor of the same model at Harrot's over on Omega. He had refused buying it when he found out that the elcor had put a huge overprice on it. Now he got one for free...

After a few minutes of searching, Shepard walked out of the room, only to find Tali lying on her back, tinkering with a bunch of wires through a newly created hatch in the command console. Samara was standing by the large window of the bridge, looking out in space, kinda like McSullivan did. Shepard looked at the quarian. "Tali...what are you doing?"

Tali made a silent grunt as a spark from one of the wires hit her in her right hand. "Well, Shepard, you see, I had no idea which button to press, since all the text was in human letters. So..."she made another grunt as she teared out a wire out of it's slot. "I'm doing it the hard way."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you just ask me?"he asked. He pointed at the door he had just walked out of. "I was right in there..."

"Because this is so much more fun!"Tali laughed amused and she put in another wire in a slot, making a large spark. She then sat up and looked at him. "Besides, I'm done."

Shepard laughed as he made his way towards her. There where few occasions where she didn't make him laugh. As he got closer, he threw a large object at her. "Here, catch!"

The quarian grabbed the object in mid-air, and gave it a closer inspection. It turned out to be a geth plasma shotgun; the most ironic weapon she could use. She turned to Shepard and smiled at him until she realized that he couldn't see it. "These guys seem to have traveled around a bit, huh?"she said instead.

Shepard felt a grin grow on his face. "You seem to be in a very good mood."he laughed.

"Of course I am!"Tali exclaimed as she made her way to her feet. "We're getting out of here! Can't fucking wait!"

Shepard frowned. He never expected Tali to swear any particularly. The worst word she had used until now had been bosh'tet. But he didn't want to ruin the mood of the situation by commenting about it. He decided to simply shrug it off and let it go.

"Come on, let's go back to the ship"Shepard said, to which Tali nodded before joining up at his side shortly. As they reached the door, Shepard turned around and saw Samara still standing by the window. "You coming?"he asked, which made the asari turn around and look at him, like she hadn't heard him before. The justicar nodded and walked towards Shepard and Tali.

"What about those two juggernauts?"Tali asked as they began walking down the corridors, back to the Normandy.

Shepard shrugged. "Simple: we'll seal the place off and then blow the living shit out of it when we're done...that is to say when we've stolen their fuel, robbed them of anything useful and put the bodies of all the pirates back in this ship; I don't want them lying around being dead in ours."

"I think I need something to drink after this event..."Tali stated.

Shepard let out a short laugh. "I think I need a glass of beer."he said. "And a hamburger. God, a hamburger would sit nice."

The surrounding hallways where silent for a while. The only thing that was heard was the sound of six feet stepping on the floor. After a short while, the voice of a quarian could be heard.

"What's a hamburger?"


	14. Chapter 13:A new player in the game

The small room was drenched in a loud, repeating beep for a few seconds, before the alarm clock was obliterated by a gunshot, turning it into not much more than shrapnel.

The assassin slowly slid open his weary eyes, the first thing to meet his sight being the dull gray ceiling of his apartment bedroom. He looked to his right and saw his hand holding the M-5 Phalanx heavy pistol that he had left on his bedside table the night before. Where his alarm clock once was, there was now a small pile of smoking metal pieces.

He felt himself smile as he put the gun back at the table and turned his stare back at the ceiling. He let out a satisfied sigh at the sudden silence and put his hands behind his head. He found himself considering going back to sleep; it was certainly tempting.

He shifted his position on the bed slightly to make it a little more comfortable, before letting his eyelids slowly droop over his eyes. He couldn't deny his desire to get a full nights sleep for once, especially after last nights bloodbath at his last contract. Sure, it was fun, but messy. The complete silence of his room made it seem so much more welcoming.

Suddenly, the assassin's eyes shot open as he realized: he had things to do! Important things, things he had been waiting for a long time. He hadn't time to sleep now!

He almost threw himself off the bed; that way it would be easier to get going. The assassin looked around his bedroom. The room had no furniture, except the bed, the small bedside table, and the only decorations where some of his trophies there where hanging on the room's left wall. Anything else was nothing he needed, since he only used this room when going to sleep. He made another laugh as the thought hit him that when you spoke of trophies, people immediately thought of varren and whatnot. Sure, he had plenty of such trophies on the floor below, but these where...special.

One the wall hung the heads of krogan, asari, salarian, human, turian, you name it. His first target of every species. People had called him sick, called him wicked, but there was something in staring into the eyes of your first enemies that always gave him a sense of satisfaction. He looked out the window to his left, in front of the bed. The window looked like a large triangular, on which both the top had been cut off when it met the ceiling, and through it the morning sun of Illiuim shone unusually brightly into his room. The light didn't often have a chance of getting by all those skyscrapers too well.

Instead of simply admiring his trophies from afar, he decided to walk over to them to take a closer look, just for the sake of it. Closest to the window hung the head of Gatatog Vrall, his first krogan target. The sunlight made out the krogan's facial features that wouldn't have been so visible otherwise. The many scars that spread across the alien's face where clearly visible -at least on one side of the face- , as was the minor underbite that the krogan had.

The assassin grinned as he scratched lightly with his fingertip at a certain spot on the krogan's dark red horn. There he felt the material that had been used to repair the hole that had appeared by his bullet all those years ago. The material was good to use in that purpose; although you could still tell a difference by feeling it, it would be impossible to see any clear differences between it and krogan horn by just looking at it.

He looked back out the window. Outside, he could see the street a bit to his right, where people walked, either to or home from work, or where taking something to eat in the cafeteria to the right from his direction. The placement of his apartment didn't give him a really good view of the street; below him was nothing but a close to endless fall, but it gave him a good view at the huge screen that was placed on the building opposite of the one he was in, on the other side of the street. Every now and then, the screen showed local time, as well as Citadel time. But the screen showed mostly commercials, so he had to wait about a minute before the digital clock appeared.

"Hm, 9:12 am." he muttered to himself. The clock showed every kind of time-measuring that was used in the galaxy, but the human one was the only one he knew. "Time to get to work myself, then."he continued.

He turned back to the bed, and threw a short glance at the door the was only to his left, only about a meter away from the bed, before walking towards it with quick steps.

The classical hiss of a door opening was heard as his door did just that. Directly outside of the door, stairs went down to the floor below, a few meters down. He found himself once again question the intelligence of the designers of this place. _"Don't they think I'm tired enough by the time I get back here?"_he thought irritably. _"Now I have to climb a bunch of fucking stairs on my way up..."_ He let out an annoyed grunt, and tried to shrug off those thoughts; he had more important things to do. From the top of the stairs, you could get a glimpse of the edge where the kitchen's tile floor replaced the gray floor that he hadn't bothered putting any carpets on. _"Breakfast?"_he thought to himself, before making his way down the stairs.

The steam rose from the stew in the plate. He didn't have much in his fridge, since he was either too busy or too lazy to go shopping- he didn't know which one it was himself. He had decided to just throw together whatever he had, his sense of taste was barely working anyway. But by the smell of it, it would not taste good to anyone with functioning taste buds. He put the plate on the kitchen table, grabbed a fork, and sat down on a chair.

The stew had a strange consistence to say the least, and it smelled like something you would find on a dump. "Glad I can't taste..."he chuckled to himself. He found himself wondering how taste actually felt like. All he knew was the it had something to do with the tongue. He shrugged and moved the fork to take another bite of the stew.

His left hand exploded with pain as his right arm suddenly jerked violently, accidentally stabbing his hand with the fork, pinning it to the table. The assassin had to fight back a scream as he wrapped his fingers around the fork and slowly pulled it out. Out of all the things that where barely working on his body, his pain receptors worked just fine.

He grunted loudly in pain as the fork finally came out, and his hand was free. He quickly dropped the fork so that no more accidents would happen. _"Damn nervous system..."_he thought as he pulled out a drawer out of the table, from which he picked out a small syringe. The nervous system in his right arm was messed up. Every third day or so, he had to take one of these syringes in order for the nerves to work correctly. Sure, until he did, he could feel no pain in his right arm, but things like these could also happen; this wasn't the first time he had accidentally stabbed himself. There could also be some problems with aiming with his sniper rifle if his arm would suddenly jerk.

He injected the small syringe into his arm. Within seconds, his whole arm tensed and his fingers began to twitch intensively. He clenched his hand hard, and it immediately began shaking. It took about a minute before the hand stopped moving. He released a breath he didn't know he had been holding. He looked at his right hand. He tested to move his five fingers, to turn his wrist. Everything now worked well. He hated those syringes; they always made his arm feel like it tore itself apart from the inside. But it was better than it would be if he didn't use them.

He held the syringe in front of it and studied it. He realized that he had no idea what he was injecting himself with. He just bought them from Dr. Rán, and they worked, where cheap and close to endless in supply. Doctor Timothy Rán: a man to which only the money mattered. Perfect for someone like him. The doctor had fixed countless gunshot wounds and cuts on him, no questions asked.

Just as he was about to continue his meal, he heard a loud beep from a room nearby. He threw a quick glance, in the direction of origin, before rushing off to the room where it came from, almost knocking the chair down. He ran into a small hallway that led into a small square room. The only thing in the room was a machine with a large holo-screen, showing a image of the Normandy. It had come into movement and was heading towards Nos Astra.

A wide grin appeared on the assassin's face. He pressed a couple of buttons on a keyboard, searching for exact data of where it was going to dock. The results showed of a dock not far from where he was. Good.

He walked out of the room with a pleased look on his face. Commander Shepard, savior of the Citadel, destroyer of the collectors. The best leader the galaxy had ever seen, as far as he knew, and probably the most dangerous man there was, for his enemies, at least. The ultimate challenge, the perfect trophy, probably the thrill of his life. _"This will be fun..."_

As he got out of the corridor, he turned left, towards the garage that he had rebuilt into an armory. On his way, he walked past the bathroom, where he saw a glimpse of himself in the mirror on the wall. He stopped and walked a few steps back. He decided to take a final look on himself before going out. He walked into the bathroom and looked in the mirror.

He ran his fingers across his deformed face, his light gray skin, what looked like it was supposed to be a turian fringe, but only was a thin piece of skin-covered bone, running from his bare eyebrows to the back of his head, where they had once pointed out backwards as small, blunt outgrowths. He had Dr. Rán remove then by two reasons: first, it wouldn't be in the way if he tried to disguise himself by putting on a helmet. Second, he simply didn't want them to remind him of how grotesque he was. He opened his mouth, revealing a set of sharp, jagged teeth, that looked like something from a vorcha, only shorter.

He looked into the amber-colored eyes in front of him. The pupil that went like a thin stripe across half his eye gave him a mental image of some ancient monster dwelling in a cave, not himself. _"Murderer, criminal, terrorist, monster, beast...abomination..."_he thought to himself angrily.

"I. Am. Raven!"he shouted at the reflection of himself, and without even thinking about it, he hurled his fist against the mirror with loud, furious cry. He saw himself shatter before him as the mirror fell to the floor in a thousand pieces. He breathed heavily while staring at the spot where his mirror had just been. He felt anger surge through him like a drug. Anger at the world, at himself, at everything.

Another loud beep from the computer in the small room he had just exited, updating on the Normandy's location, brought him back to reality. He sighed. _"Let's just get this over with..."_ He then turned around, exited the bathroom and walked towards his armory.

Most of the apartment was empty. He wouldn't bother with changing it, especially not now when it was only temporary; a good hunter was always on the move. The hallway he was walking in was no different than the other rooms. The walls, the floor and the ceiling where in the same gray. The only thing was that the walls where covered in trophies of different kinds of animals. He also had the head of a thresher maw, but there was no wall where it would fit. It would have to stay on his ship.

He got to the door of the garage, which now served as armory. He typed in a series of numbers on a console next to it, making it slowly open with a hiss.

The walls of the room where covered with racks of guns, ammo, explosives, all of pretty much every model. But he only used those things on small-time contracts; a few hits here and there. In the middle of it all stood a much larger rack, on which his pride was: his armor and custom-made sniper rifle, separated into five parts, waiting to be puzzled together.

_The salarian ran down the streets of Omega, occasionally looking over his shoulder after his attacker. It seemed he had lost him, but he wouldn't dare to stop and check. He simply kept running, drawing the eyes of anyone he passed on the poorly populated street. It was late. Most of the shops had closed, and there was not much criminal interest in this particular area. Eventually, he stopped running past people, and was now completely alone._

_A silent laugh made the salarian stop and turn around with horror in his face. It was impossible to determine where the laugh had came from, but it was clear that he was still being followed, and he guessed that his follower was not behind him._

_He began walking forwards with uncertain steps, everyone of them seeming to hurt in his chest. His breathing was heavy and erratic. Every now and then, he threw a nervous look in some direction whenever he thought he heard something. _

_The street was quiet. The only thing that was heard was the light humming of cars in the distance, as well as the mechanical throbbing of a machine somewhere. To the salarian's left, there was nothing but a long drop, down to one of the streets around Afterlife. If her would jump down there, there would not be much left of him after he hits the ground, if he's not squashed by a bypassing car first. It wasn't much better on the right side. A large wall ran from one side of the street to the other, with an occasional locked door or alley._

_The salarian stopped when he saw something small and black fall in the air towards him. He looked at the object as it landed softly against the floor in front of him. He threw a few quick glances here and there, before slowly bending down to pick it up and give it closer inspection._

_It turned out to be a feather that he held between his fingers. What is a feather doing on Omega? There weren't any animals on the station, except the Blood pack's varren, of course._

_Another laugh was heard, almost like an echo. The salarian's breathing became even heavier as he looked around the area, trying to determine where it came from. The laugh was followed by one word._

"_Gotcha." _

_The salarian heard nothing more before a rifle slug carved it's way through his skull. The silence overtook the streets once again. The only difference to the scene was the body of a salarian, lying in a pool of green blood._

The assassin smiled over the memory. It was his first contract; a long time ago. That salarian's head was now hanging on the wall in his bedroom.

He concentrated at the rifle once again. He lifted the main part off the rack, the one everything would be attached to. He then took the grip of the gun, which he inserted into a slot, and locked into position with the press of a button, accompanied by a metallic click. He continued by taking the barrel, which he slid into a slot on the front of the gun, and yet again locked it with a button. It didn't take long until he had put together his rifle, and soon he held it in his hands, studying it's white metal surface. He ran his fingers across the long barrel of the gun, feeling after any potential rust or anything else unwanted. Nothing. Smooth as normal.

He grabbed a thermal clip from a box to his right and inserted it into the rifle. Images of him putting a hole in Shepard's skull passed through his mind time after time. His face broke up in a grin.

He looked at his armor, and remembered that he had to scratch another name from his "list" before he got into it. He put the rifle aside and looked at the underside of his forearm.

There was a long list of names carved into the skin and flesh, now leaving them there forever as scars. All of the names had been scratched, except one: his target from last night.

He took a knife from one of the racks, and slowly began to carve a line across the name "Lía T'Liriath". He didn't flinch as the cold metal dragged itself through his flesh. He had gotten used to it by now, and this way, they would always be with him; he would never forget their names or their deaths.

As soon as he was done, he took a small amount of medi-gel and smeared it onto the open wound, preventing any heavy bleeding or infections. He moved the knife down a bit, where he then carved in "J-o-h-n S-h-e-p-a-r-d" He then did the same thing with those wounds. It was just recently ha had began carving in the names of his targets, or prey as he liked to call it. He was no assassin, he was a hunter. An assassin could fail. A hunter kept hunting until he got his prey. And those who where worthy deserved his or her place on the list. He was certain Shepard was worthy, but he would fall like the rest.

He put the knife away and looked on a terminal that was conveniently placed next to the rack that held his armor. He pressed a few buttons, bringing a page of data about Shepard. He had bought that information by the Shadow Broker, not too long ago. It wasn't cheap, but yet again, money didn't concern him much. He had gathered enough money through his years to easily afford luxurious decorations and furniture, but he simply didn't bother. He had already read through the page. He had memorized every word he needed to. He looked at the picture of the commander that followed. Another grin spread across his face.

"Ready or not, Shepard, here I come."he laughed.


	15. Chapter 14:Hades' dogs

Shepard stepped out on the floor outside the Normandy. He didn't expect to return to Illium so soon, but here he was. The memories of the day's events passed through his mind.

_He stepped into the CIC through the walkways from the pirate vessel. He sighed at the piles of corpses that filled the floor; lots of work to get them out of there. He walked over to Joker, who was still standing over by the temporary barricades._

"_Make sure to get the bodies off the ship, Joker."Shepard told the pilot. "Then set course for Illium; we've got some repairing to do."_

_Joker nodded, and then turned to the crew. "Alright, let's get this mess off the ship. Come on, chop chop!" the man clapped his hands twice as to signal the crew to get working. After a few sighs, the crewmen started dragging the bodies onto the other ship. Shepard saw a satisfied smile on Joker's face, probably because he wouldn't have to do the dirty work due to his disease. Or maybe he liked pretending to be the one in charge._

_As he walked towards the elevator, Shepard heard Joker's voice behind him. "Oh, and, Commander, you would want to check on the med-bay. I heard some serious gunfire down there not too long ago."_

_Shepard turned around and stared at the pilot. "What!"he cried out, which made all the crew on that floor stop in their work and look at him. Shepard didn't care. "And you just stood here!"he shouted at the bearded man, which made him back off, startled by the commander's sudden accusation._

"_Whoa,whoa! Calm down, no one got hurt! I just think you should check on them down there."Joker exclaimed in an effort to defend himself._

_Shepard stared at the pilot. He wasn't quite sure how to respond. "Please, Shepard. At least no one got hurt..."he heard behind him. He turned around and saw Tali giving him a pleading look._

_The commander sighed, and turned to Joker. He gave the man a last stare before heading towards the elevator. As he and Tali entered the cart and the doors closed, an unpleasant silence took place._

"_Are you defending him?"Shepard was the first to break the silence without looking at the quarian next to him. His voice was cold and accusing. Not what he wanted. He didn't want this to end with a quarrel._

"_W-what?"Tali sounded surprised as she answered. She had probably not expected him to use that tone at her._

_Shepard looked at her. "Are you defending him?"he asked again, this time trying not to sound so accusing._

_Tali seemed to hesitate. She looked him in the eyes and nodded. "Yes."she said. "I don't want us to fight each other. Is there something wrong with that?"_

_The question hung in the air for a few seconds. Shepard no longer felt capable of looking her in the eyes, and he turned away his gaze. He sighed. "I..."he started with a shrug, but lost his words. He paused and tried again. "I'm sorry. It's just that I-I'm so tired...about the pirates, about those damn holes in the hull...the reapers..."he looked back at Tali, but he had to struggle not to look away again. "...about everything."_

_Tali looked at him for a few seconds, then put her right hand softly on his cheek. Her slightly lower body heat gave a comfortable coolness on his skin. The door to the elevator opened, but none of them cared if somebody saw them._

_Eventually, without any of them knowing how long they had been standing that way, Tali removed her hand and took a few steps onto the third floor. She turned around and gave him an inviting glance to follow. Shepard smiled and he too stepped onto the crew deck._

_Shepard's jaw dropped as he saw the condition of the room. Sure, he had expected traces after a bloody battle, but he could see body parts and intestines spread all over the place. In the middle of it all was Grunt sitting on a chair that he had leaned back at the table, covered in blood and gore with a satisfied smile on his face. The krogan's shotgun rested neatly in his lap._

"_Seems like you've been having some fun..."Shepard said in an effort to break the awkward silence. The krogan's smile grew wider. He had been having fun alright._

_Grunt got up from the chair with a laugh. "Hell of a fight, Shepard. The pirates where numerous, but no match for me."he laughed once again. Together with all the blood and guts that was on him, he gave the picture of something you would find in a nightmare._

"_Yeah, they where many. Things got messy..."they heard a female voice, and Kasumi suddenly appeared next to Grunt. She too was covered in gore._

_Grunt turned to the thief. "Can't take a little blood, human?"he mocked. A thought passed through Shepard's head of how he wouldn't exactly call this "a little"._

_Kasumi crossed her arms and gave the krogan an annoyed stare. "You sprayed one of them all over me."she stated coldly. Shepard heard Tali to his right trying to keep in a giggle._

_Grunt was going to answer, but Shepard interrupted. "You can argue about this later. We need to get this mess cleaned up, and since both Tali and I are needed elsewhere, well...I think that makes you two the only ones available."he explained with a teasing smile. Kasumi was going to object, but Shepard cut her off. "It'll also be a good punishment for you for creating this mess in the first place."He turned around and walked back towards the elevator with Tali not far behind.. "Have fun..."_

"Shepard?"Kasumi pulled Shepard out of his thoughts. The commander turned to the woman. "Shall we go?"she asked as she gestured towards the doorway that led into the Nos Astra docks with their petite little shops and bars. Tali was already standing in the hallway trying to end a conversation with a rather chatty volus that had seemingly appeared from nowhere.

Shepard nodded towards Kasumi and walked towards Tali, who looked at him like he was a knight in shining armor, coming to save her from her from the awkward conversation she had been forced into. Tali then turned to the volus. "I'm sorry, but I really have to go now."she explained, but she didn't sound particularly sorry.

"Ah...yes..."the volus started as he saw Shepard walk up to the woman. "Well, it was..."he took a short pause to take a deep breath. "...nice talking to you."he then wandered off towards a human who seemed to be waiting for him.

Shepard chuckled to himself as he walked past Tali and towards the small market that was just outside Liara's office; she could probably pull a few strings to get the ship repaired. He threw a last glance over Tali's shoulder at the volus again. They where talking to each other, but he couldn't hear what they said because of the distance. He turned back to making his way to Liara.

"So, how did it go?"the human asked when the volus got up to him.

The volus drew a deep breath before speaking. "She...'had to go'..."

The human man laughed. "Just like with the rest of them, then. I'm telling you: a volus just can't get a quarian to give him her number."he took a short pause. "I guess you're a little too...round."he chuckled.

The volus threw a glance at the quarian who now left the area. "I will succeed."he drew another breath. "Some day..."

* * *

The agent stood by one of the kiosks, trying his best not to draw too much attention, which was hard since they where absolutely positive that he had to wear a silver-like suite that glimmered in the sunlight. Fortunately the crowd mass that always appeared on the streets in the morning blocked most visual of him; there was a turian kid that wouldn't stop staring at him though. Through his black visor, he watched the trio from the Normandy head towards that T'soni's office.

His eyes shot up as he saw the quarian stop by one of the other kiosks and scanned the wares with her eyes, her back turned to him. He slowly pressed a button on the left arm, activating communications. "Command, this is Bravo-nine. I have visual on the target; she's standing by one of the stores; I have a perfect opportunity. Requesting permission to..."

"Negative, Bravo."a dark voice immediately cut him off in the radio. "You know the drill. We can't risk them being alerted of our presence. Do not – I repeat – do not engage."

The agent muttered angrily to himself. "Affirmative command. Keeping my distance. What does the boss want with her anyway?"

"Nothing concerning you, corporal."the voice was quick to answer. "Just make sure you don't loose them, or the boss is gonna want both our hides."

The agent sighed; recon and espionage could barely be more boring. And it was a great way to lower your mood. He turned to the turian child. "What the hell are you staring at?"he snapped at the kid, who quickly backed off with a horrified look on his face. Or was it a she? Who knows...

* * *

"Shepard?"Liara sounded surprised to see the commander enter her office again so soon; you think she would have received information already.

Shepard smiled. "How are you doing, Liara?"he asked, like they hadn't met in a long time.

The asari made her way around her desk and crossed the room in four quick steps. "I'm fine, but...what are you doing back so soon?"

Shepard pointed with his thumb in the direction of the Normandy. "We ran out of fuel and got hit by pirates. Now we got a number of holes in our hull, but we didn't loose too many."he paused for a moment. "Do you know of a captain McSullivan?"he added.

Liara seemed quite calmed at the news of him being attacked; he had been through worse. "McSullivan?"the asari started. "Yes, I've heard of him. If he was the one who attacked you, I am not surprised you made it as good as you say. That man is cruel and calculating, and has a lot of experience..."a smile showed up on her face. "But that doesn't seem to have made him better; he is still an amateur in leadership and the piracy business."she paused a moment. "And since you're alive, I'm guessing he is also dead."

Shepard made a confirming nod, then changed the subject. "Can you help us out?"he asked. He heard Kasumi make an offside joke of how they didn't want to miss the ballgame on the Citadel, but no one acknowledged her.

"Well...yes I think I can." She walked over to her desk and ran her fingers across the smooth surface. "I can call a few favors...pull some strings..."she sat down in her chair and looked at them. "If you wish, I can wipe the records; it will be like it never happened."she made a sly smile at the end.

Shepard made his way to the chair in front of her desk as he spoke. "That sounds good, but keep the records."he sat down in the chair. "I want the families of those of my crew who died to know what happened to their loved ones."

Liara nodded. "Of course, Shepard. I understand."she opened up her console in front of her and began pressing different buttons. "It can take a while for your ship to be repaired. I have a lot of calls to make, but it should be done in a few days."She turned her head up and looked at Shepard. "Now, if you excuse me..."

Shepard nodded, got up from the chair and exited the room. He, Tali and Kasumi made their way down the stairs without a word. Only when they had made it back to the stores someone decided to speak.

"What are we supposed to do the next few days?"Kasumi asked as they stood in front of a kiosk. "There isn't much to do aboard the Normandy and there's only a bunch of shops around here."

Shepard shrugged. "I don't know. I guess we'll figure something out."he noticed a gleam in the thief's eyes as she eyed one of the shops. "And Kasumi..."the woman turned to him, pulled out of her thoughts. "...try not to steal anything, would you?"

Kasumi raised an eyebrow and smiled. That sly glimmer remained in her eyes. "We'll see what happens..."she said quietly.

The day passed. Instead of staying on the Normandy, most of the crew checked in on a hotel nearby. Shepard never really understood how it was much different from the Normandy, but most of the crew wanted a hotel instead, so he might as well.

Shepard looked out the window of the room. It had gone dark outside, and the streets where no longer as active as when they arrived. He thought himself being able to see a silhouette standing in an alley not too far away. He squinted his eyes, but the silhouette quickly disappeared. If someone had been there and then walked away, or if he had just imagined it would probably never be found out.

The door opened behind him, and he turned around. There he saw Garrus standing in the threshold with his arms crossed. The turian walked into the room and studied the furniture. It was a quite simple room, since they had probably figured that people would spend more time in the shops than in the hotel rooms. The room was slightly larger than the captains quarters on the Normandy, and it was decorated in a classical human-theme; you could special order a room that resembled the culture and architecture of different species. A small bit of the furniture was made out of wood of different kinds and colors, like in the early days. A large couch was standing close to the middle of the room in front of a large screen, that currently showed some not very interesting news.

"Interesting way of decorating you have, you humans."the turian commented before establishing himself in one of two leather chairs that stood in an alcove to Shepard's left. "But you know how to make comfortable chairs."he added after a few seconds and ran his hand across the leather. "What is this smooth material of yours?"

Shepard didn't answer. He continued to look out the window and onto the streets. He had a strange feeling of being watched. He threw a glance at Garrus, who was now looking at him. "Do you know where Tali is?"Garrus asked, as he seemed to remember the real reason he came there; it was not to admire chairs.

Shepard was going to answer when he saw Tali walking down the street just below him. He pointed at her and turned back to the turian. "She's right over there."he said, which made Garrus get up from the chair and walk over to the window.

"What's she doing out this late? No shops around here are open..."Garrus said quietly as he and the commander watched the quarian. She seemed nervous.

Shepard saw Tali head towards the alley where he had seen that mysterious silhouette. She threw a few nervous glances in different directions, before slowly stepping behind the corner, disappearing from Shepard's line of sight.

The light that illuminated the area just outside the alley suddenly went out, which made Shepard feel a wave of worry flow through his body. A mysterious figure, Tali disappearing into an alley, and a sudden light outage, but only on a specific spot. Something wasn't right with the situation.

Shepards radio suddenly sparked to life, and Miranda's voice was heard. "Shepard, come in. Something strange is going on."

Shepard lifted his hand and pressed his earpiece; he never took it off. "I agree on that, Miranda. What's going on?" Garrus looked at the commander, curious for an answer.

He heard a light sigh from the woman before she spoke. "Tali seemed to have gotten some strange message now in the lounge. She just got up and left. Do you know where she's headed?"

Shepard felt his heart getting heavier. _"A message?"_he thought. He looked at Garrus, who had a slightly worried look on his face. Shepard looked out the window again, towards the alley. "Well, she went into some alley, and..."he was cut off by a loud scream from the alley that made several windows on some of the surrounding buildings light up. To Shepard's surprise though, the voice was of a human male.

Shepard and Garrus looked at each other for a second, then stormed out of the door to the room. The light gray hallways with their red carpets all seemed the same in each direction, but Shepard remembered which way he had went on the way here. He and Garrus rushed through the hallway to their left, then took a sharp right, and Shepard almost slipped on the floor, despite the carpet.

They ran further from the room, then took another sharp turn to the left. Garrus was close on running into a hanar that had just opened it's door. They finally made it to the stairs; no need for an elevator when they where on the second floor.

They eventually reached the lobby, where Miranda and Kasumi where waiting for them. "Come on, we have to hurry!"Miranda shouted as they ran up to her, before all four charged through the door without stopping.

Shepard felt every step hurt – not in his legs or feet, but in his chest. Every step made him fear more what they would find there. Was Tali alright? Had she been attacked? If so, by who? And who was it that screamed earlier? So many questions surged through his head, but he felt that they would all be answered soon.

After what seemed like an eternity, they finally reached the alley. What they found punched the air out of Shepard's chest.

On the floor lied the bodies of four humans in silver-gray fully covering suits, with black visors on the helmets that crossed their entire face. The first man had a broken neck, and it had been broken in a way that only Tali could accomplish. The visor had been cracked on one man, and a pipe covered in blood lied on the ground. Another one, a woman, had several gunshot-wounds in her chest and the wall behind her. They all had some kind of electric batons, but one of them was pressed in under the helmet of the last one, and it seemed to have cooked his brain and burned his flesh; the alley was filled with a curtain of stinking smoke. Tali was nowhere to be seen.

Shepard dropped down on his knees and studied the body of the woman that had been shot. These where without doubt the ones that had attacked Tali, but she didn't seem to have made it easy for them. After a short while Shepard noticed an emblem on the woman's shoulder, and the situation suddenly became clear. He had seen it before, more times than he would like. Cerberus...

Shepard felt anger boil up inside him. He clenched his fist, lifted his head and stared into the alley that continued further in between the buildings before turning abruptly to the right.

"_That fucking son of a bitch..."_


	16. Chapter 15:A new enemy

Tali looked around the lounge of the hotel. The room flowed with life and activity. Talking, laughing, drinking – the people here where simply relaxing and having a good time. She wished she could be in such situations more often.

A noise drew Tali's attention towards the bar, and she saw a salarian bartender throwing a drink around in fancy tricks. Just next to the bartender, in front of the counter, stood a quarian man looking at her. He leaned against the counter with a drink in his hand – which he seemed to hold only to make an extra effect. The lights from the lamps in the ceiling glistened off the blue piece of armor he had on his shoulder; he seemed to be a marine.

The man lifted his glass towards her. Although the man didn't stand a chance against Shepard in gaining her heart, she couldn't help but blush at the unexpected attention. Fortunately, the man didn't show any signs of planning on walking up to her, which would just force her into another awkward conversation.

Tali closed her eyes, relaxed, and leaned back in her chair. She ran her hand across the armrest of the furniture, and wished she could feel the material without a damn glove in the way.

"Relaxed?"Tali was slightly startled when she heard Thane's voice to her right, and she opened her eyes and found the drell sitting in the chair on the other side of the small table next to her.

Tali smiled. "Yes, very."she started. She then saw that Thane seemed tense. "But you don't seem so relaxed..."she added.

The drell shrugged and stared into the crowds that flocked the center of the room; Tali had sat down in a chair by the wall next to the door out to the lobby. "No...you never know if you're safe in crowds – if you are followed, they may loose you among all the faces, or..."he made a light cough before continuing. "...or you loose sight of them, and you suddenly get stabbed in the back or...shot in the head."

The quarian chuckled. "I don't think anyone's here to kill us, Thane..."she teased. In the corner of her eye she saw Miranda sitting in another chair not far away, scanning the room.

"Well..."Thane started and forced a small smile. "You of all people should know that old habits die hard; are you still having problems with sleeping?"he asked. Tali made a light nod.

Tali's omni-tool suddenly made a light beep. She lifted her arm and activated it. It showed of a new unread message. Tali raised an eyebrow as she saw that the field that showed the sender was empty. She opened the message, wondering who would send her a message at this time.

The quarian sighed when she noticed that the message was in human letters. Although she found human letters beautiful, she couldn't read them for the world. She pressed a few buttons, and the text immediately translated into Kaleesh. She slowly read through the lines.

"_Come out to the alley outside the hotel as fast as possible. It's important. Come alone, or don't come at all."_

Tali frowned. Something seemed wrong with the message. But what if it really was important that she went there? If not, what could happen?

She got up from the chair and made it out of the door in a few quick steps, leaving a Thane with a wondering look on his face behind. She paced through the lobby and out on the streets, walking past a pair of turians that seemed stoned out of their minds; stumbling around and laughing at pretty much everything, including doing nothing. She thought herself see a figure disappear into the alley that was mentioned. She eventually got to the opening of the alley and rounded the corner.

The alley went far in between the buildings, filled with trash, old crates, and broken glass. The place seemed empty. Tali threw nervous looks around here and there. The situation was very uncomfortable, and she felt her heart slowly quicken it's pace.

A large, muscular, dark-skinned human man stepped out of the shadows only a meter in front of her; she was surprised that she didn't notice him before.

The man looked at her for a few seconds. He wore a black suit with a white shirt and black tie – an old human clothing. His head was bald and his chin was bare. A nasty scar ran across from his lower lip on the right side, went right under the nose and across his left eye, where it stopped. This had made his left eye light gray, and most likely blind. The two eyes that stared at her looked like they hadn't smiled for years.

"Tali'Zorah?"the man asked with a dark, stern voice. Tali felt more and more like she had made a mistake coming there in the first place. She was going to answer, but couldn't find what to say. She instead nodded slowly.

The street light behind her suddenly went out, and a number of humans in silver suits with batons stepped out of a few surrounding doors, both in front and behind her. The large man in front of her – much larger than the other human – got a pleased look on his face, but he didn't smile. He pulled out some sort of badge out of a pocket, which he held in front of her.

"Nighthound special ops, Cerberus corporations. My boss wants to...meet you."the man explained, which made the whole situation become clear to Tali. How could she be so stupid?

Tali slowly backed away, but hit her back into two more men in suits, and they grabbed her arms, thinking they had a secure grip on her. The man in front of her grunted. "Please, miss, if you won't come peacefully, we're going to have to force you with us."he said, but it was obvious that he only said that as a formality; he wished her to fight back.

Tali began calculating the situation. If she wanted to get away, she would have to act fast. She kicked the shin of the man that held her right arm, making him back off screaming and grabbed his now fractured shinbone. Tali then rammed with her full body weight into the other man, making him stumble into a few old rusty pipes that sat in the wall behind him. One of the pipes loosened, and she quickly ripped it out of it's position.

She turned to the rest of the Cerberus agents, and saw that all their batons where sparkling with electricity. One of the agents swung his baton at her, but she easily dodged it and instead slammed the pipe with full force into the man's face, breaking his visor. Tali couldn't determine if she had cracked the man's skull too, but he fell dead to the ground.

The quarian heard steps behind her, and she turned around and saw the man she had slammed into the wall run towards him with his baton. With a gracious movement, she twisted the baton out of the man's hand and shoved it in under the man's helmet. His helmet immediately began sparkling, and the man screamed in pain as the electricity burned his flesh. It only took a few seconds for the man to fall limp on the metal floor.

Tali began dodging batons from several directions as the agents tried to get a hit on her head. She then saw a woman behind the pack load a gun. The quarian tackled a man to the side, dodged another baton and then slid through between the legs of another, before she reached the woman.

The agent was unprepared of Tali suddenly being in front of her, and she didn't even have time to aim her gun before the quarian had twisted it out of her hands, turned it around, and unleashed several shots into the woman's chest, spraying blood on the wall behind her.

Tali realized there was no way back to the hotel the same way she came; she was on the other side of the group of Cerberus agents now, but she saw an opening further into the alley._ "Do I have a choice?"_she thought. She jumped up on a wall to her right and kicked off, putting her with her thighs on the shoulders of the last agent that was in her way, and then pulled the same trick as in the engineering when the Normandy was attacked.

With a quick twist, a loud crack was heard from the agent's neck, and the man went lifeless. Tali jumped off the body, turned towards the alley and took off, running as fast as she could. Although she killed a great deal of pirates on the Normandy, the wounds from that time now took it's toll; she was already winded.

"After her!"she heard one of the agents shout behind her, and a number of boots hitting the ground was heard close behind. Things weren't going as planned for them. Yet again, neither did it for her. Tali came to a crossing of alleys. To her right came another squad of Cerberus running towards her, so she had to turn to the left, further away from the hotel.

Tali couldn't figure for how long she ran. The alleys she ran through all seemed the same, and the agents where never far behind. Eventually she reached what seemed to be a construction area. The workers had left for the day, leaving an unfinished warehouse behind. Tali ran past the closures and into the area. Just when she ran through the doorway, and thought about where to go next, a forearm stretched out in front of her, which she ran right into, making her fall to the ground, hitting her head in a beam, and everything went black.

* * *

Shepard paced back and forth in front of the alley, deep in thoughts. The whole team was gathered, waiting for orders from their commander. The human looked into the alley, where the walls slowly sunk into the shadows. After a while, he turned back to the team.

"Alright..."he started. "Since the Cerberus guys haven't returned out this way, I guess they have some kind of base at the other end of the alley."

Thane shook his head. "No. I have worked in these parts and learned the area well. That alley goes like a maze between the buildings."the drell explained. "If we just go in, we'll never find them in time."the man's words drained a large amount of hope from the atmosphere.

Shepard sighed and scratched his cheek. "Well, that plan went to hell immediately."he shrugged. An idea suddenly lit up like a lamp in his head. "Kasumi..."he turned to the woman. "Can you scout the area from the roofs?"he asked as he studied the surrounding buildings. He was lucky. They weren't really that high. Only a few stories.

He looked at Kasumi, who also studied the buildings. She then looked at Shepard and nodded with a fresh smile on her face. "Yes, I think I can. Those suits of theirs should make them easy to spot."

Shepard nodded and turned to the others. "Everyone else split up in small teams and search the alleys; we can't really do much else."he let the words hang in the air for a few seconds as he thought of who would fit best together. "Alright...Miranda, Jacob, Garrus, Samara, Zaeed, you're team one. Grunt, Jack, Thane, Legion, Mordin, you're team two. Split up at need and at your own discussion."everyone nodded, and Jacob saluted. Shepard pointed into the alley with his rifle. "Move out!".

He saw Kasumi begin to climb the ladder. "I'll let you know if I see anything."she said, before she activated her stealth system and disappeared.

The alley was dark and silent in an unsettling way. A few shouting drunks somewhere was the most that was heard. A Loi ran past them across the ground. The small rodent made a light hiss as it disappeared behind a trash can.

They came to a multi-way junction. The second team, who had apparently appointed Grunt as leader, split up and covered half of the paths that the alley split up in. Shepard turned to Garrus. "Garrus, you're with me. The rest of you, split up at will."he ordered. The turian nodded. Shepard decided to take the path furthest to the left.

Half an hour of walking passed without anything special to report from any of the teams. They had walked past a construction site a while ago, but there was nothing interesting there. Shepard found himself beginning to let his guard down, when Kasumi was suddenly heard in the radio.

"Shepard...I think you want to see this. It's just around the corner to your left."This made Shepard raise an eyebrow. Kasumi sounded a bit disturbed by her voice. He rounded the corner, and the sight that met him made his jaw drop.

In front of him was something that looked like an open garage door. Around it was half a dozen dead Cerberus agents. One of them had gotten his skull blown up in a grade that only a high-caliber rifle slug could do; the man's head wasn't just split, it was trashed. Another one seemed to have had a grenade blown up in her abdomen. Whoever had killed these agents, that person had gone overkill. Shepard looked at Garrus, who seemed almost shocked.

"What is it, Shepard? What do you see?"Shepard heard Miranda ask through the radio as the commander walked towards the doors.

It took a moment for Shepard to realize that Miranda had said anything. He pressed his earpiece. "We're at the entrance of the Cerberus compound. Seems like someone came here first...it's a bloodbath..." His words drowned the radio with silence.

Shepard moved his gaze to Kasumi who was standing on the roofs just above him, looking at him. "Kasumi, I need you down here. If you can find a ladder..."He was cut off when the thief grabbed a pipe and slid down to the ground. She landed light as a cat, with no sound to reveal that she had made her way down. The woman had a smile on her face when she turned around and looked at the commander. How could she smile now?

Shepard noticed a small black object on the ground. He picked it up, and found it to be a feather from some kind of animal. He had never heard of any black birds in Nos Astra...

He dropped the feather and stepped towards the open doorway. The blood splashed under his boots like water on the ground a rainy evening. Whoever was responsible didn't cut back on the toys.

The inside wasn't much better. Most of the lights where out – the generator powering them was probably broken. The walls where stained with blood and the floors where covered with bodies and broken glass. It was like they had been thrown into a horror movie.

"Great...is this where Dracula shows up?"Kasumi tried to joke, but it only made things worse, at least for Shepard. Garrus just looked at her wondering.

"Dracula?"Garrus wondered as they reached what looked like a cafeteria and searched it with their flashlights.

"Bad guy from old horror movies on Earth. Can we get back to the task at hand?"Shepard said, as he figured that he might as well explain to the confused turian; at least it would get the man focused.

They stepped slowly deeper into the cafeteria. Before long, they found a chef in the kitchen with a meat cleaver driven halfway through his head. "Who could have done this?..."Kasumi asked with disgust.

Shepard shook his head. He wondered just the same thing; what kind of persons can slaughter people like this? He reached up to his earpiece. "Miranda, the agents with silver suits – something I should know about them?"

The woman sighed. "It's the Cerberus top elite. If the rest of the agents where you are got the same suits, it had to be a very skilled squad that killed them..."A few seconds passed. "I recommend reinforcements here; we're on our way."

Shepard was quick to answer. "No, stay where you are! Last thing we want is for anyone to escape because the alleys where unguarded."

"But..."

"I said stay where you are!"Shepard snapped. His voice gave away his stress; he was facing a probably extremely lethal and psychotic squad that surely was still there, complete darkness, and to make it worse, he still needed to find Tali.

Shepard turned back to the door that went into the room they where in. "Move out!"he shouted, frustrated over the realization that he was unsure of the next step.

* * *

Miranda leaned against the wall and let out a heavy sigh. She felt frustration of the whole situation. Who knows how many and how good those attackers where? Shepard could be running right into an army of hyper lethal psychotics. But she had learned to follow the orders of her superiors.

She studied the surroundings. All of the windows lied dark and quiet, except of a few on a specific apartment from which techno music pounded silently. Most likely some kind of party. Her situation however was nothing to really cheer for. Why did that man have to be so goddamn stubborn?

"_But think, Miranda – without discipline, an army turns into nothing but an angry mob. To support that discipline, you need orders and command. What is more important than obedience of your superiors?"_she thought.

"_The survival of them, of course!"_she heard inside her head, like somebody else answered. _"What is worse – getting yelled at for not following orders, or Shepard getting killed?"_

Miranda looked up at Jacob in front of her. "You know what? Fuck it!"she said as she fiddled with her omni-tool, cutting off communication channels with Shepard, Garrus and Kasumi. She then radioed to the rest of the teams.

"Forget this, we're gonna help Shepard."she stated in the radio.

"Forget it, human!"Grunt exclaimed. "We have our orders."

Miranda grunted in annoyance. She then decided to repeat what she had heard inside of her head. "What's worse – getting yelled at for not following orders, or Shepard getting killed?"

The radio was silent for a moment. She then heard a deep sigh from the krogan. "We'll meet you where we split up earlier."the man muttered reluctantly. Miranda smiled. She had won an argument over a krogan in a matter of seconds.

She turned back to Jacob. The man smiled, and gestured to where they had came. "Ladies first..."

Miranda chuckled as she walked past him. "What a gentleman."she joked. She said it in a way that reminded of an old lady of who a young man had opened the door for.

* * *

The door split open and the trio charged into the room with, guns high, prepared to meet a firing squad. Shepard found himself staring into a machine room. They seemed to be in a factory. By a godsend, the lights worked in this part. More Cerberus lied dead on the floor, as well as a number of factory workers. He was also met with a feeling of being watched. He turned to the other two. "Go easy; I've got a bad feeling about this."

Shepard walked across the floor of the gigantic room with slow steps; it must have been around twenty meters just up to the ceiling. The room itself was much larger. Wagons and trucks in different shapes and sizes scattered across the area. By thee silence, you would think they had left for the day, hadn't it been for all the bodies.

Shepard turned to Garrus. "Examine the other rooms. If you run into something, let us know."he ordered. The turian nodded and took off towards the closest door. He watched the man disappear into what seemed to be another large machine room.

"Kasumi..."Shepard started and turned to the thief. "You..."he was cut off by a door opening somewhere close.

Shepard immediately ducked behind a crate and listened. He heard steps from the left side of the room. He had chosen a good side of the crate to take cover behind. Surprisingly, no gunfire came, and the steps only came from one person.

He turned to Kasumi who now was right next to him. He hushed at her. She nodded. Shepard continued to listen. The steps where closing in. He waited for them to close in. It took surely over thirty seconds before the sounds came to a proximity that he deemed sufficient.

"Hold it right there!"he shouted as he got up from behind the crate. "Stay where you...are..."his voice died out when he saw Tali standing in front of him with a pistol in her hands. She seemed just as surprised to see him as he was to see her.

"Tali!"he cried out and jumped over the crates, which almost made him fall over them. He didn't care. He embraced the quarian as hard and tight as he could, unwilling to ever let go.

They stood there for a short while, not giving a thought about Kasumi looking at them awkwardly.

Tali finally pushed away from him. She tried to find words, but just seemed overwhelmed with joy to their reunion. "Ho-how did you find me?"she finally managed to ask.

Shepard put his hand on her helmet and stroke with his thumb over her eye area, like he tried to wipe off the tear that had appeared there, until he realized that that damn faceplate was still in the way. "We searched the alleys."he answered. "The whole team went out looking for you. But what about you? How did all this happen?"he asked as he gestured towards a few of the dead bodies on the floor.

Tali shrugged. "I...don't know. I just woke up in some small room, and everyone was...dead..."

Shepard then remembered the thief that was behind them. "Uh...Kasumi is..."he started, but stopped when he saw a smile beneath the tinted glass.

"It's alright."she ensured. "She already knows." Shepard suddenly had a feeling that the plan of keeping their relationship a secret was going to hell, and it had only been a little over a week.

"Hey, Shep..."the commander heard Kasumi behind him. He turned around and saw the woman pick up a similar object as the one he found outside. "A feather."she stated, apparently as surprised as he was. "It's from a raven."She smiled. She had always liked birds.

The world suddenly seem to go into slow-motion as a loud bang was heard, and the woman fell to the floor with blood spraying out of the side of her head.


	17. Chapter 16:Yüjin

"Kasumi!"Shepard cried out as the woman fell lifeless to the floor. He was about to run over to her, but another bullet passed by only centimeters away from his face. "Shit!"he exclaimed and backed off. He threw himself behind a oblong crate behind him, where Tali had also taken cover.

Shepard slammed his back into the crate. It hurt, but he didn't care. He looked at Kasumi's dead body lying in a small pool of blood. "Fuck!"he screamed as he slammed his fist into the crate. "Fuck!"he repeated even louder. He looked at Tali and saw her silver eyes stare into the air, silent.

A psychotic, sadistic laughter consumed the room. The echoes made it unclear which way it came from, but he knew where the shot had came from. "Hello, John."an unfamiliar voice sounded from the other side of the room. It was from a man, but it was metallic, like someone was talking through a can. "Nice to finally meet you..."the voice mocked.

Shepard immediately felt an intense hate against whoever the voice came from. The first thing he did was to take one of his best friends away from him. He remembered when Jenkins died on Eden Prime, and when Alenko died on Virmire. It was different now. He barely knew corporal Jenkins, and Alenko died voluntary to protect the bomb. Kasumi was killed in a second by an unknown sniper with an apparent mental illness.

He managed to collect himself. "Who are you?"he shouted into the air. Another unsettling laugh echoed in between the machines and crates.

"I'm called a lot of things..."the voice stated. "Murderer, thug, assassin, psycho, monster...abomination..."he hesitated on the last part. You could tell that he hated that word. "But..."he started in a faked friendly voice, like he was someone you met on the street. "...You can call me 'Raven'."

"What do you want?"Shepard shouted, but this man's intentions where obvious. He wanted to kill him, simple as that.

"You can't figure that out?"the voice laughed. "Shepard, you disappoint me!"A few seconds passed. "Let me make it clear to you..."he added, before another gunshot was heard and a point on the floor right next to Shepard exploded in sparks, but the commander didn't flinch. Yet another laugh crept into the human's spine, this one more maniacal than the others.

He didn't know why, but Shepard got a feeling that he needed to delay whatever confrontation that would come. "I guess you're the one who killed these guys here?"he shouted. "You certainly seem to be sick enough to do what we've seen..."

"Heh, indeed I am!"the man who called himself Raven shouted back. An ounce of pride hid in his voice. "Oh, and Shepard!"the words hung in the air for a moment. "Watch your scalp..."Raven was heard, a little quieter.

Shepard's eyes shot up as he realized that he had stretched up his head slightly. He immediately dropped into the floor. A bullet passed by where he previously had his head, almost at the same time. Why had he warned him?

Shepard's radio made a bit of static, followed by Raven's voice. "There, now we won't have to shout to each other, and the communications to the rest of your team has been cut."the sniper explained with a mocking hint in his voice. "And by the way, that hug was the cutest thing."he laughed. "Wait..."the satisfied tone in the man's voice faded away. "Shepard, where is your quarian friend?"

Shepard turned to where Tali had been sitting moments ago, only to see that she was gone. He crawled over to the other side of the crate and squinted around the corner. He saw a purple veil disappear through a door that went up a floor, up to a large balcony on the other side of the room with a glass wall. Shepard saw a gleam of light by one of the glass panels, probably from a sniper scope. The human smiled. Typically Tali.

* * *

Tali finally reached her destination. She peeked around the corner in the hallway and saw an armored figure standing by the glass with a custom made sniper rifle._ "So this is the bosh'tet that killed Kasumi..."_she thought. The man had a mask covering his face with a gasmask of unknown model right below it. The shape of the sniper suddenly struck Tali with a confusing realization. It was impossible to determine the man's species by the shape of his armor. His legs had a fairly quarian shape, but his body had wrong shape and size, and his hands had four fingers. What kind of creature was this?

She crouched and approached the sniper as silently as she could. As she got closer, she heard him mutter in some language that her translator apparently didn't have registered. Her heart quickened for every step she made and she began breathing heavier for every second. Every moment, she expected the man to turn around and shoot her point blank in the head.

She eventually made it over to the sniper without getting noticed. She slowly pulled her knife and straightened up. She lifted the blade high, ready to sink it into the man's neck.

Just as she was to strike, Raven turned around in the blink of an eye and grabbed her wrist and twisted it. Tali's hand felt like it was going to snap, and she dropped her knife. Raven turned her around and she felt a boot kick her in the back, sending her into the wall in front of her. She was quick to react and turned around as soon as she hit the wall. She made a high kick towards the man's face. He seemed to think that he would easily dodge the kick, but it impacted directly with his mask.

The mask flew off, revealing a grotesque, deformed face that didn't seem to belong to any of the species, yet all of them at the same time. She couldn't imagine how his mouth looked like; it was still covered by the gasmask. A pair of amber eyes stared at her with murder in sight. "You where an ugly son of a bitch..."Tali said silently.

The one who called himself Raven made his classical psychotic, silent laugh. "Can't say I can say the same, beautiful."his eyes smirked.

Tali made another kick, but Raven quickly grabbed her leg and twisted it, making her fall to the floor with a scream of pain. Before she could react, he grabbed her shoulder and threw her into the wall, before landing an uncountable number of punches in her stomach in a matter of seconds. He finished with a final, much harder punch onto her chin. Before she could even begin to fall, the man grabbed her shoulders once again, pulled her forwards, put himself behind her and kicked her in the back, sending her through the glass panel in front of them and falling to the floor.

* * *

Shepard felt his heart freeze as he saw Tali fly through the glass from the balcony, bouncing off a container before landing hard into the floor. "Tali!"he cried out and ran towards the woman who was just getting to her feet. Just as he got over to the quarian, he saw a strange figure jump down from the hole created in the glass. The man was holding Tali's knife in his hand. He landed with a light clang and with barely any sign of his legs taking any impact.

Raven stared at Shepard as he helped Tali to her feet. His eyes smiled sadistically. "Hello, Johnny-boy."the commander heard in front of him. He looked up and saw a boot hit him in the face, sending him into the floor a few feet away. Shepard pressed himself away from the cold metal floor, curses flowing silently from his mouth. He looked at where he was just recently and saw Tali fighting the sniper.

The quarian stumbled back when she received a few quick punches on her helmet, but she managed to avoid getting stabbed by her own knife. The assassin's speed and strength seemed superior to both Tali's and his own. It even looked almost unnatural. But Tali eventually managed to get a hold on the hand that held her knife and twist it out of the fingers that held it.

Shepard was going to get up and help her, but he noticed that his leg had been stuck under a beam that had fallen over him. He struggled with getting his leg free, but to no avail. He looked at the two helplessly at the realization that there was nothing he could do.

Raven swung with his fist after Tali, but she dodged it and put herself in a position that had Raven with his back towards Shepard. The commander saw the quarian kick the man in the shin, sending him on his knee. She then put her foot on his knee and kicked off, dragging her knife across his face as she flew over him, cutting deeply into his flesh. The woman landed right in front of Shepard as Raven roared in pain, but she was too busy to help him. The human raised an eyebrow in surprise as he saw that her knife was covered in a bone-white liquid. Was that his blood?

* * *

Tali smiled as Raven turned to her with a deep cut across his face, right through his left eye. She was surprised to the liquid running out of the cut being white, but she had more important things to worry about. The assassin dotted with his fingertips on the wound. When he saw what was apparently his blood, he turned to her with a feral snarl that vibrated through the metal of his gasmask. She smiled; he was really pissed now.

The sniper suddenly lifted his arm and threw a small object formed as a pentagon on her. The object stuck onto her chest. It gave away two short beeps before it loaded electricity into Tali's body. The electric pulses made her body bend backwards and every muscle in her body tensed to it's max. The pain was so intense she couldn't even scream.

When the electricity finally stopped, she feel to the floor on her stomach, as all her energy had been drained and her entire body flowed with pain. It hurt when she breathed, when she moved, and her heart even hurt when it pounded. She looked at her left hand through her tear-filled eyes as she tried to think. It was almost impossible; she had never felt such pain in her entire life.

She heard Raven laughing as he closed in on her. She struggled against the pain as she tried to make her way up too her feet, but she immediately felt a kick in her side that sent her back to the floor with a pained grunt. She then felt the man rudely enough sit down on her back, multiplying the pain in her body threefold. It wasn't as bad as the gun that she felt pressed against the back off her head shortly after.

"Too bad someone as lovely as you would die like this, Tali..."Raven said silently. The strange part was that it sounded on his voice like he meant it. "Such a waste...you where real good with a knife..."

* * *

Shepard watched with despair as Raven sat down on Tali's back and pressed a gun at her head. He made another desperate effort to pull his leg free. He suddenly felt new strength surge through his body. He took a firm grip around the beam and tried to lift it with every ounce of his strength. Just as he thought it was hopeless, he felt the metal beam starting to lift from his leg. Hope flowed through him, and he used whatever strength was left to slowly move it to the side. He dropped the beam right next to his leg, making a loud clang echo through the room.

* * *

Raven turned to the noise, where Shepard was, only to see to his anger that the human was gone. He got off the quarian and stood up. He raised his gun and walked slowly towards the beam that had recently kept his prey where he wanted him. He looked around the area._ "Where is he? How could he be gone? He can't be gone! I won't allow it! I'll kill him! He'll die!"_he thought furiously.

The man turned back to the quarian, only to see that she was also gone. He felt a fury grow in him, greater than any he had felt in his entire life. He screamed out loud angrily in the air. He felt the blood run in a greater grade from his wound due to the increased pressure, but he was simply to angry to give it a thought. He threw stares around the room. "Shepard!"he screamed. "Where are you! Where the fuck are you, you coward! No one escapes me! You get that? No one survives!" No answer. Raven felt himself beginning to shake with fury. "I'll find you, Shepard! You and your fucking quarian! I'll gouge out your eyes, piss on your brain and skullfuck you!"

* * *

Shepard stood behind a container with Tali over his shoulder, listening to Raven express his insanity. He shook his head when he heard the sniper scream something of how he would use his intestines as Christmas decorations. _"This guy's got some serious problems..."_

Shepard saw his entire team suddenly rush through the door that he, Kasumi and Garrus had entered through. Raven turned to them with murder in his eyes and unleashed a number of slugs from his pistol on them, but they where no match for their shields. When he almost got hit by several rounds, the assassin did something Shepard hadn't anticipated: he retreated. The sniper ran back to the other end of the room and disappeared up a ladder. "I'll get you, Shepard. Some day, I'll get you."Raven's voice was heard before the room went silent.

"Hey!"Shepard shouted at the team, which made everyone look at him with their guns instinctively turned to him. He adjusted his place under Tali to try to make it more comfortable for her. "Can you give me a hand?" Jack ran over to him and crawled in under Tali's other arm. Shepard saw with worry that the quarian was barely conscious. Those shocks looked painful...

"Who the hell was that?"Miranda asked as they got over to her and the others.

Shepard looked at where Raven had disappeared through a hatch in the roof. "I don't know..."he started. "He called himself 'Raven', but I have no idea what he is."he threw a gaze at Kasumi who still lied lifeless on the floor. "But he's trouble..."

Shepard turned back to Miranda and saw that she looked mournfully at the dead woman. "We'll make sure she gets a proper burial once we have the chance."he ensured the ex-agent, but he realized that he said it mostly to comfort himself. He looked back at Kasumi that Zaeed and Grunt lifted off the floor to carry her away. He wished there was a more dignified way to get her away from there, but sadly there was none.

Shepard forced a smile. "She always wanted to go to Tokyo..."

Mordin rushed over to them. "Sorry to interrupt, Shepard, but ms. Tali'Zorah seems to be in dire need of medical attention."he said. "Unnecessary with two dead in one day..."he added, but you could tell that he immediately regretted saying it.

Shepard looked at the salarian and nodded. He and Jack walked past the professor and through the door with Tali still clinging onto their shoulder with what little force she had, like she was going to fall if she let go. _"We're sticking to the Normandy from now on..."_

The Normandy was mostly empty, but the crew where not far behind. The order of leaving the hotel and get back to the Normandy had come as a disappointment to the crew, but no one had complained after what happened. He and Jack carried Tali towards the med-bay, accompanied by Mordin. Shepard looked at Jack with irritation when she left the room as soon as they placed Tali in one of the beds. Did she care at all?

The human studied the woman in the bed. She had lost consciousness somewhere on the way to the ship. He scanned up and down her body with his eyes. He saw her chest slowly rise and lower. He moved over to her face. He put his hand on the side of her helmet and looked at the woman's closed eyes. She seemed distant, yet peaceful. He knew inside that pain couldn't kill you like that, but his mind didn't want to listen. What if she died too? What would he do? He remembered the pistol that lied in a drawer up in his quarters.

"Shepard?"the man heard to his right. He looked to his side and saw Dr. Chakwas looking regretfully at him. "I'm sorry, Commander, but I am going to have to ask you to leave..."

Shepard turned back to Tali and nodded slowly while looking at the woman distantly. He slowly stepped away from the bed and paced across the room. He got out of the med-bay and saw that the mess hall was empty. He walked over to the table and sat down, his mind switching it's attention between Tali and Kasumi repeatedly.

_He walked into the observation deck and saw Kasumi sitting in the couch she always seemed to sit in. She turned to him and smiled. Shepard gestured to the bar that stood at the other end of the room. "A drink?"he asked. She nodded._

_As the commander established himself in front of the bar and began pouring up a pair of drinks, he heard the woman speak behind him. "Shepard, I want to thank you for helping me with getting back Keiji's graybox."she started._

_Shepard turned to her with a smile on his face. He handed her the red drink he had recently mixed, as he saw that she had walked over to him. "That's what friends are for, isn't it?"he laughed._

_The thief took the drink and sat down in the chair next to him. "You know, I was a little unsure about asking for your help."she admitted. "Not many people would help a thief make a heist against a powerful, rich madman."She chuckled at how it sounded and stared at a point behind him, distant. She turned back to him and looked him in the eyes. "You have no idea what it means to me."_

_Shepard laughed and took a sip off his own drink. "Isn't that term a little overused?"he joked._

_Kasumi chuckled at Shepard's little joke, but quickly let it pass. "So, Shep, did you want anything in particular or..."she left the question unfinished._

_Shepard shrugged. "Just checking how you're doing. So..."he turned to her with another smile. "How you're doing?"_

_Kasumi took a sip of her drink. "I'm fine, thank you. I'm glad I kept the data in the graybox."she took another sip. "Oh..."she turned back to the couch, like there was something she had just remembered. "I almost forgot. There was something I wanted to give you."she said and walked over to the couch, where she started rummaging around._

_She walked back over to Shepard and handed him a small object in a chain. "Sorry if it appears that I gave you something I found in the couch..."she said silently, mostly as a joke. Shepard looked at the object and found it to be two Japanese characters together – maybe Kanji – that he didn't understand._

"_Yüjin..."He heard Kasumi say in front of him. He looked at her, and saw that she leaned her head slightly to the left with a wide smile. "Friend."she explained._

_Shepard grinned. "Thanks."he said sincerely. He looked at the small wooden object again. "Friend..."he thought._

Shepard leaned back in his chair, tired. He stretched his hand down his pocket and pulled out the dark brown ornament. He flipped the object between his fingertips a few times as he studied it. _"This graybox is the only memory I have of Keiji. I thought you would want a memory of me after we're done with all this..."_Kasumi's words echoed through his head.

He tied his hand around the necklace. _"Friend..."_he thought, like he had done when he first got it a few weeks ago. That was what she was; a friend. He remembered after Akuze, when he had promised himself not to get too close to his squads, for it would be so much worse to loose a friend than a normal soldier, a stranger. He had realized that he needed friends sometimes, but he now remembered why he gave that promise to himself.

The situation suddenly made him exhausted. Everything had gone wrong. Over a week had passed since he destroyed the collectors, and he hadn't gotten any closer at all to stop the reapers since then. Instead, he had gotten attacked by pirates, lost several men, had the Normandy forced into repair, and now lost one of his best friends to a new enemy that he knew nothing about and that also was utterly psychotic.

The man felt his eyelids getting heavy, as well as his head. He felt his mind slip away as he sunk into a much needed sleep.


	18. Chapter 17:A talk with insanity

Raven slowly opened his eyes and found himself lying on an operating table, staring at a human man in his middle-ages. He wore large, round glasses that didn't seem to fit him, a white doctor's coat that went down to his knees with a light blue shirt under, a pair of pants in the same blue and a pair of black shoes. The man's face was covered with wrinkles around his forehead and his hairline had pulled back to just above his neck. A small sign on his coat said "Timothy Rán, doctor." He also had a gasmask in front of his mouth and nose.

The doctor tapped on a place where his eye was before his encounter with Shepard. "You okay?"the man croaked, but it sounded very formal. He probably didn't care.

Raven waved away the doctor's arm, as a very uncomfortable feeling surged through his body when he tapped at that spot. "Yeah...are you done?"he asked and ran his fingertips across the thick scar in the face that Tali had given him. He felt a cold metal piece sitting in his eye socket with a bit of glass in the middle.

Rán nodded. "Almost. Have to connect your new eye to the nervous system before you'll be able to see..."Raven looked at the doctor and raised a naked eyebrow. The doctor shrugged. "By force..."he added.

Raven stared at the man. "That sounds painful..."he started. He wasn't afraid of pain, but he didn't exactly like it. No more than a normal person would.

The doctor nodded slowly. "Oh yeah, it'll hurt like hell, but we have to do it while you're awake so your body responds correctly. Anesthesia won't work." The doctor threw a glance at the rest of his body, then back at him. "You may have noticed that you've been bound to the table by your wrists and ankles..."

Raven turned his gaze to the ceiling. He took a few deep breaths, then turned back to the doctor and made a quick nod.

Rán nodded back. "Alright, here we go..."He picked up a small device with numerous buttons and controls. He pressed one of the buttons, and Raven immediately felt his head explode with pain as the mechanical eye dug circuits deep into his skull, maybe even to his brain. He struggled against the straps that held his arms in place. He just wanted to rip out the little thing that rooted in his skull. When he found it impossible, he instead tensed every muscle in his body and screamed loudly into the air. The scream sounded feral, almost like from an animal, and it made the doctor back off, startled. When the circuits reached another layer of muscle tissue, he pulled another breath and let out an even louder scream that sounded like something out of a nightmare. "Hurt like hell" was a grave understatement.

The pain finally stopped, and Raven dropped into the operating table, as he had apparently lifted his body away from it by the pain. The assassin lied limp on the table, breathing heavily. He had his eyes closed, like he was afraid of what he would see if he opened them.

He eventually decided to let his eyelids slide open. He noticed that he once again looked through two eyes. The world suddenly seemed to have a slight tone of red, but that was probably due to the glass lens in the mechanical eye. He saw Doctor Rán walk over to him.

"You okay?"Rán asked as he loosened the belts that held the assassin in place on the table. Raven looked the doctor in the eyes. He grinned, revealing his numerous sharp teeth. Rán smiled too, but he seemed to have forced that smile; he seemed almost frightened when the sniper opened his mouth. His appearance was intimidating indeed, more so with that robotic eye staring blankly with a large red lens in the middle.

When the doctor loosened the strap around his hand, the assassin held it up in front of his face, testing how well he could use his new eye. With another grin, he ran a finger across the lens, without feeling anything. But his grin faded when he saw that the finger leaved a grease spot on the glass.

The doctor laughed as he worked with releasing the second hand. "Be careful with that new eye..."he teased. "Can't change it again now that it's... rooted in your head." He took a small rag and wiped off the grease off the lens. Raven quickly caught his hand, stared at the man and shook his head as a warning. His other hand got free, and he sat up on the table and looked around the room.

It was like a real surgery, with medical equipment standing along the walls; medi-gel, scalpels, tweezers and other. But they where in no hospital. That would be far too conspicuous. But if you just walked into the room, you wouldn't think you where in a simple basement. Raven closed his eyes, and felt a tear form up at his new eye. But when he wiped it off, he found it to not be a tear, but a drop of white blood.

"There's some special benefits in that one..."Raven heard to his side and saw the doctor looking at him with a satisfied smile. "Night vision, heat vision, you name it!"

Raven laughed. "What, I need a manual for it too?"He saw a gleam in the doctor's eyes, and the man took out a small book – a manual – and threw it into the sniper's lap. Raven looked at the manual. "Well, what do you know..."he whispered to himself. He flipped through the pages. _"Will have to read this sometime..."_he thought.

Raven noticed a mirror at the end of the room, and he felt himself curious of what was sitting in his head. He tried to get off the operating table, but was reminded that he was still bound by his feet. He turned to the straps, but was too impatient to finger with them. He decided to simply rip through the leather with his claws. He jumped down on the floor and looked at doctor Rán, who had an annoyed look on his face. "I'll pay for it..."Raven said and turned his back to the doctor. He walked to the mirror and looked at the reflection of himself.

The robotic eye stared at him, like it was somebody else. _"Emotionless, blank, dead. I like it."_he smirked. The assassin's eyes shot open when something that looked like a mechanical iris closed around the red pupil, making his vision on the left side a bit darker. It wasn't closed for long before it retracted again however, but it had left it's impact on his thoughts.

He turned to the doctor. "What the hell was that?"he exclaimed.

Rán looked up from the magazine he had been eying in and stared wondering at the sniper. "What was what?"he asked.

Raven was distracted for a moment when he noticed that the doctor sat with a Fornax magazine, but quickly regained his focus. He pointed at the metal piece that replaced his left eye. "Some kind of iris-looking thing closed over the lens."

The doctor laughed. "Yeah, that part is actually called the 'iris'. That eye might be a little hard to control in the start."he gestured at the manual that still lied on the operating table. "You really should check that out."

Raven smiled and threw a glance at his armor and gasmask that stood obediently in a rack. He turned back to the doctor. "Why did you fill this room with this gas anyway?"he asked. "There's oxygen and all that stuff outside – why did you spray this stuff in here?"

Rán got out of the chair he was sitting in and instead leaned against the operating table. "Well, it would be easier for you with this if you wouldn't have to wear that mask in here, especially when sedated and in surgery. This is what you breath, after all."His face broke up in a grin behind the translucent plastic gasmask. "Besides, I can charge you extra for it."

Raven nodded. "Alright, sounds good."he looked at his armor again, then back at the doctor. "Speaking of which – how much for all this?"

The doctor's eyes sparkled in a greedy glimmer. The man began pacing back and forth on the other side of the table in the middle of the room. "Well...that eye cost a small fortune, it was a complicated surgery, and this gas wasn't too cheap neither..."

"Just tell me how much."the assassin cut him off. The doctor looked at him and must have seen that the he was very impatient.

Rán nodded. "Of course! Shall we say about..."he stared into Raven's eyes. He seemed a little afraid of making whatever price he was going to make. "Seven hundred grand?" After he said it, the doctor looked like he expected to get a shot in the head. He knew how dangerous the man he treated was.

Raven grinned sadistically. This doctor had some guts, but he was pathetically scared of him. "Alright."he said plainly and activated his omni-tool to make the transaction. "Money doesn't matter anymore, anyway." He pressed a few buttons, and in moments, the deed was done. He deactivated the omni-tool and turned back to the doctor. "Done."he stated with a nod.

The doctor's face slowly broke up in a smirk, and he laughed silently. "Much appreciated."he laughed. He then seemed to get into other thoughts. After a short moment, he seemed to return to reality. "How did this happen, anyway?"he asked. "I know you went after Shepard, but what happened?"

Raven grunted. Telling story of failure didn't seem particularly tempting, but he felt he wanted to tell someone of his frustration. He sat down in a chair that was conveniently placed nearby behind him. "Please..."he gestured at a similar chair next to the one he sat in. "Sit down..."

Rán shook his head. "No thanks, I'm doing just fine here..."

Raven grinned. _"Smart guy."_he thought. "_I wouldn't sit down next to me."_ He shrugged plainly. "Suit yourself."he said. He adjusted his place in the chair slightly before continuing. "Anyway. Some Cerberus guys had kidnapped a quarian of...certain character. Normally, I wouldn't bother with this, but..."he made another grin. "I happen to know that this quarian is the girlfriend and lover of a certain Commander Shepard. So I went there, killed all of the Cerberus guys I could find, and found myself a nice little spot to wait. Shepard got there with two others. One of them – some turian – left into another room. Had to blow the brains out of the other one."

"But not the turian?"Rán cut him off. "What happened to him?"

The sniper shrugged. "I locked the door behind him. He couldn't get back that way, but he could easily go around and get back to where they where first, but I figured that it would take enough time for me to kill Shepard and the quarian who had also showed up." He pointed at the scar that went across his eye. "And as you see, it went to hell – they both got away."

The doctor shrugged. "So? He got away from you, so what? That's not so bad."

Raven suddenly felt his head explode with anger. "Not so bad?"he screamed out as he got up from the chair, making it tip over and fall to the floor with a clatter. The doctor seemed startled by his aggressive reaction, but there was much more on the way. "Not so bad?"he repeated and threw the operating table to the side when he got over to it.

He made his way to the doctor, who simply stood still in fear. "He got away from me!"he screamed in the man's face. "Not only Shepard, but that quarian bitch too!" He pointed a claw in the doctor's face. "They survived me! No one survives me! No one has survived me for twenty fucking years!"

"B-but who said they survived you? They got away from you, but who said they have survived you? They just take a little longer to die."the doctor stuttered. It was obvious that he said that only to save his own skin, but he had a point.

Raven stopped in his tantrum and digested the words with his mind. He then backed off from the doctor and turned his back to him. "No one have gotten away from me..."His voice was silent, but still flowing with anger.

"Well..."the doctor spoke, encouraged by the fact that he might redirect the assassin's anger away from him. "Before you went on your mission, you told me that it would be a 'true challenge'. I-isn't it part of the challenge? That you have to hunt him a little bit?"

Raven slowly turned to the doctor with his face broken up in a wide grin that spoke of madness, and his eyes stared intensely at him. "Remind me to...buy you a beer sometime." He walked towards the rack holding his armor and gasmask with an unsettling laugh that crept into your spine and gave you the creeps.

The parking lot outside was empty, not of shuttles but of people, but the nervousness still grew in him. Why didn't he bring a disguise? The last thing he wanted was for people to point and stare. A few screams could also follow, together with sirens in the distance. He was not fit for the open world. He knew it. He hated it.

Raven reached his own shuttle – gray and dull to not draw attention. He established himself in the seat and closed the door. He leaned his head back and let the thoughts fly through his head. He closed his eyes and saw Shepard crawling on the floor in front of him, pitiful, pathetic. The commander had a horrified look on his face as a gun was lifted in front of his head and fired. Raven smiled. _"Beautiful."_

"_Kill..."_a voice spoke in his head, and he immediately woke up from his day dreaming and stared out the window in front of him. _"Kill him. Kill. Kill him. Kill him."_The words pounded on the inside of his head painfully. He placed his palms on the sides of his skull, like it was going to fall apart. _"Kill! Kill! Kill him! Kill him! Kill!" _Raven pressed his hands harder against his head and screamed out in agony. "Kill! Kill him!"he heard himself scream into the air.

"Good. You understand now."he heard a voice to his right. The pain immediately stopped, as well as the voices. Raven threw his head to where the voice came from, and saw an identical copy of himself – except that he had his normal eyes left instead of the new robotic one and had no gasmask on – sitting in the seat next to him, looking at him with amusement.

Raven froze on his place. Had he been driven completely mad? "You're...you're not real."he said silently to his replica. "You can't be."

The copy of him laughed. "I'm as real as you are..."he hinted. He tapped with his finger on his right temple. "But only in here..." He grinned widely.

Raven shook his head frenetically. "No. No no no no no. You can't be! You..."he stopped, collected his thoughts and tried to find words. He looked the copy in the eyes. "What do you want?"he asked.

The figure in front of him laughed anew. "The same thing as you – after all, I am you."He leaned in close on Raven's face in the blink of an eye. "We both want Shepard dead."the replica added.

Raven had no idea what to say; he never expected to stare into the eyes of himself this way. "Then why don't you do anything?"he finally managed to ask.

The figure laughed silently. "You forgot?"he started as he put a fingertip on Raven's forehead. "I'm just inside your head. But..."he removed the finger. "I am going to tell you how much you want to kill Shepard, as you apparently don't know yourself.

The copy leaned in even closer on the person he replicated. "You will not kill him. You will slaughter him. Schlachtung ihn. He and that quarian. They both need to die." The figure's face broke up in another grin.

Raven frowned. "Tali? Why would I want to kill her? It's Shepard I'm after!" He shouted at his double, but he knew deep inside that that wasn't entirely true.

His copy laughed, louder this time than before. "Do you really think you can lie to yourself? Face it – you want Tali dead too. She got away from you. Nobody gets away from you, remember?"

The figure's lower body suddenly turned into a mist, and he placed himself right next to Raven, looking in the same direction as he was moments ago. "Imagine..."he started as he pointed with his hand in front of them, like they where admiring a picture. "They lie by your knees, begging for their lives, for mercy."he moved his arm from it's position in the air and instead grabbed the assassin's chin and stared into his eyes. "But you won't give it to them, will you?"

Raven smirked. "No..."he whispered as he shook his head.

"Exactly!"the copy whispered back. "So, what will you do?"he asked with a more normal tone.

"Kill them."

"You will do what?"

"Kill them."

"You will do what!"the replica shouted, obviously not pleased with the man's answer.

"Kill them!"Raven shouted in the face of his mental image of himself.

The figure flew away from him, his arms stretched out. "Good! Kill them, mutilate them, slaughter them! And everyone who gets in your way! No one survives you!"The replica's voice lowered to almost a whisper. "Go get your prey..."

The figure sunk back to the spot he was at first, and when Raven blinked, he was gone. The assassin sat there, alone, thinking. His face broke up in a wide grin and he stared intensely into the air, focused on thoughts of how he would kill the two most amusingly. Shoot them? Beat them to death? Blow them up? Decisions, decisions...

The sniper turned to the computer that was built into his shuttle. He let his fingers play across the small keyboard, and the coordinates to the docks where written into the auto-pilot.

As the shuttle took off, Raven found himself thinking through a long list of targets he had killed over the years. Soon, the savior of the galaxy and his woman would join them. "I think I'm going to enjoy this."he said to himself.

"_Oh, you will."_He heard his own voice inside his head. _"Trust me..."_

"_You will..."_


	19. Chapter 18:Starting an interesting day

"Shepard?"The commander opened his eyes and saw Garrus standing in front of him with his arms crossed casually.

"Garrus?"Shepard yawned as he stretched his arms as he sat on the chair. "Where where you yesterday?"he asked. He then suddenly felt anger against the turian pulse through him. "Actually, yeah, where the hell where you!"he shouted as he got up from the chair hastily, almost tipping it over.

Garrus backed off with his hands raised in defense. "Woah! Shepard, what's the matter with you?"he took a step back and looked at the human with caution. "Calm down."he said quietly.

Shepard felt no desire to calm down. "Where the hell where you, Garrus?"he shouted at the man in front of him. "You could have helped us. You should have helped us!"

"The door locked behind me! What could I have done?"Garrus answered in defense. "Shepard, calm down! This isn't like you."he pleaded.

"What you could have done!"Shepard was close to screaming at the turian. He really wanted someone to blame things on. "There's a lot of things you could have done! Instead, Kasumi's dead and Tali's unconscious! What the hell did..."

"Shepard!"Garrus snapped at the commander, making the human silence in an instance and stare at the man. "Are you blaming me for Kasumi's death?"he was close at shouting at Shepard. "Are you saying that it's because of me that that asshole shot Kasumi and almost killed you and Tali?"He closed in on the human and stared him in the eyes. "Are you?"

Shepard was at a loss of words. Of course he wasn't blaming him! He took a slow step back and dropped back into the chair. He looked up at the man and tried to find something to say. "I...no, I don't."he said to the turian. He put his elbow on the table next to him and placed his forehead in the palm of his hand. "I...sorry, I'm just so goddamn frustrated."

He saw Garrus sit down in the chair across the table. He seemed calmer. "Shepard..."he started. Shepard looked at the turian, showing that he had his attention. "I know the past week haven't...really gone as planned..."the turian continued. "But come on – it wasn't really easy hitting the collectors neither, yet you didn't flinch. Right now, the crew needs the commander they had then. We all do."

Shepard forced a small laugh. "Well, that's easier said than done."He switched his gaze to the med-bay, where Tali was still lying unconscious, at least as far as he knew. "But I'll try..."he added.

"She's still unconscious, but she's stable."he heard Garrus next to him explain, like he had read his mind. "Doctor Chakwas says she'll be up soon...but she didn't say how soon." Shepard looked back at the turian. "I'm sure she'll be fine. Don't worry."the man added.

Shepard didn't answer. He instead looked at the other end of the room, where three large holes gave clear sight of the area outside. A skyscraper was right in front of them on the other side of the fly-space for cars, not too far away. _"Raven could already have shot my brains out by now. Shouldn't they have covered those holes already?" _Shepard got up from the chair, walked over to the closest hole and studied the city.

The activity on the "streets" was already frenetic at the early hour. Shepard crossed his arms and gazed at the opposite skyscraper. The morning sun glistened off the building's wall that was mostly made out of windows, like the old skyscrapers back on Earth. He squinted his eyes to try to catch an eye of anything behind the glass, but all he saw was the light reflection of the sun; it kept blinding him. A sniper scope wouldn't be noticed among the many spots of lights.

Shepard looked down and saw a seemingly endless fall, but the commander was never one to be afraid of heights. He played with his toes inside his shoes, trying to feel the edge of the floor through the rubber. But his shoe soles where simply too thick. He sighed lightly and turned his attention back at the abyss of steel, glass and traffic. If you would fall down among the vehicular pit of death, you wouldn't get ten feet before you would turn into a bloodstain on a windshield like any other bug.

"Commander?"Shepard heard behind him. He turned around and saw Chakwas standing a few feet away from him. She had tied her hands together in front of her, and she had a warm smile on her lips. "She's awake."she continued.

Shepard felt himself fill up with excitement. He tried to hide it from Garrus. "She's awake?"he asked. "Can I see her?"

Chakwas nodded with her smile growing. "Of course, Commander. In fact, she wished to speak with you." The doctor stepped aside, clearing the way for Shepard.

The human smiled. There was something in Chakwas' voice, like she was hiding something, but he didn't give it much thought. He walked towards the med-bay with impatient steps. The world seemed to slow down more and more by every step, like someone was delaying him reaching the doors, just to mess with him.

The door finally opened and he saw a familiar quarian sitting in one of the beds with a huge pillow behind the back, looking at him. He couldn't keep it up any longer. He ran over to the woman and almost hit his knee in the bedside. He got down on the knees and looked her in the eyes. He put his hand on Tali's. "You okay?"

The happiness Shepard felt for her being okay had a large part replaced by worry when he saw a confused look behind the tinted glass. "Well, yes, but..."she pulled her hand away from him. "Who are you?"

Shepard felt his chest explode and his heart rupture. "You...you don't remember?"he asked silently. He felt the tears already beginning to fill up his eyes. It was getting hard to breath; his lungs pressed themselves together frenetically when he tried to fight the sobs. It wasn't sorrow that had struck him – it was fear. What would happen now?

Shepard kicked off from the floor and ran towards the door to get Dr. Chakwas. He felt his tears beginning to run down his cheeks. Was all that he and Tali had gone? Just like that?

"John, wait!"Shepard didn't take many steps before he heard Tali shout behind him. He stopped and turned around right before he reached the door, looking at her through eyes gone blurry from tears. He saw her jump out of the bed and run over to him. "Please wait."she repeated even though he had already stopped. She grabbed his hand and pressed it close to her chest. "It was just a dumb joke. I'm sorry."

The questions circled around in Shepard's head. He couldn't get a grip on the words the woman had uttered. He gave Tali a wondering gaze. "What?"he asked silently. The tears still filled his eyes, but not as much as before.

"It's..."Tali started, but stopped again and turned away her head shamefully. After a few seconds, she turned back to him, as she seemed to have found words. "Chakwas and I planned to joke with you, but I didn't expect you to..."tears began appearing in her eyes instead. "I'm sorry."

Shepard made a relieved sigh as he felt a giant weight lifted off his chest. He slipped his arm around the woman over her left shoulder blade and pulled her close. "Damn it, girl, you scared the hell out of me."he whispered in the quarian's ear.

"I'm sorry."she repeated. "Please don't be angry at me. I shouldn't have done that to you."she whispered back.

Shepard made a short laugh and pulled her closer. "It's impossible to be angry at you, Tali."he said, which made her look up and meet his glance. "You are far too sweet for me to ever be angry at you. But don't you ever do that to me again."he continued.

Tali didn't seem fully convinced that she was forgiven. "I'll make it up to you."she proposed. "Please, let me make it up to you."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "How do you plan on doing that?"he asked.

"Oh, I think I know a way..."she started. Her voice had turned warm and seductive, as had her eyes. There was no doubt about what she was thinking of.

Shepard felt his heart skip a beat and his face turned hot. He realized that he was blushing, which made him blush even more. "I-I don't know..."he stuttered.

"Don't get holy with me, John. I know you want to."she giggled. She grabbed his hand. "Come on."She walked towards the door. When she reached a sudden stop after a few steps, she turned around with a questioning look and saw the commander standing still on the floor.

Shepard pulled her back slowly. "Tali, you've just woke up from being unconscious for more than twelve hours. I think you should get some rest."he said. He couldn't believe he said that himself.

Tali made a sigh. "Alright, you're probably right."she walked back towards the bed. She then stopped and turned around with her upper body and looked at him. "But...the proposition is still open..."she said with her voice turned back to that seductive tone. She turned away from him and took the few remaining steps from the bed. "And don't deny that I made something move in your pants."she added.

Shepard blushed even more when he noticed that she was right. He wanted to get out of there; it was getting awkward. "Anyway...I got to get to work."he turned around and walked towards the door. He turned around and looked at her. "I'll come back later."

He walked through the door and paced through the mess hall, trying to avoid anyone seeing his face. He didn't want the crew to in any way see that he had been crying. Creating misunderstandings was one of the easiest things to do in the world. Hell, he hadn't even been crying. Not really. But you couldn't really tell any difference.

The man stepped into the elevator and pushed the button for the quarters. He needed to fix himself up.

"_Am I really that vulnerable?"_the thought suddenly struck him. He had almost cried because he thought Tali had lost her memory. But memories could be regained. What if she died? Would he be able to keep going? _"Raven almost killed her. I can't risk it happening again." _He grabbed the bridge of his nose and sighed. _"Why didn't I see this coming? Something like this happens in every damn action movie through time! Damn it, I shouldn't have agreed on checking in on that damn hotel!"_

The door opened and he found himself on the top floor. He stepped through the door and noticed a broken syringe lying on the floor in front of the door to his quarters. _"How long have that been lying there?"_he asked inside his mind. He made another sigh and shrugged it off. _"Let's just get this day over with..."

* * *

_

The man entered the door to the darkened office. The only thing illuminating the room was the blue star that floated outside the window. It was incredibly far away, but it looked like you could stretch out your hand and grab it.

"Lieutenant..."the man's head snapped at a dark spot just next to the empty chair that stood in the center of the room. He saw the Illusive Man stepping out of the darkness, pacing back and forth in front of the chair without looking at him. He held a cigarette in one of his hands. "According to your report, you captured the quarian, but you lost four men – top elite agents – while doing it."The tycoon stopped and threw his gaze at the man that stood with a fearful look on his face. "And then one unknown sniper wiped out your entire platoon. One. What's worse is that the quarian got away." The Illusive Man walked over to the chair and sat down with a very displeased look on his face. "You may already have understood that I am not happy."

The lieutenant was close to panic. What was he going to do? He was much larger than the man sitting in the chair in front of him, but nowhere as powerful. "We-we'll get her. If you give us one more shot..."

The Illusive Man shook his head. "No. Your incompetence has cost me enough as it is. I'm letting a real soldier on this mission."with that, he pressed a button, and a hologram of an armored man appeared in front of the lieutenant. The man was even larger than him and had some kind of white armor with horns on his helmet. The man looked at him, and the lieutenant sensed a mocking grin under the helmet.

"Captain..."The Illusive Man clicked his fingertip at the cigarette, making the ash fall silently into the ashtray. "You have been briefed on your mission; find Tali'Zorah and bring her here, preferably unharmed. Perform it as you see fit."

The armored man, who was apparently a captain, made a nod and the hologram faded. "As for you..."the tycoon turned back to the lieutenant. "You are a lieutenant first grade, am I correct?"

The man nodded with hesitation. "Yes, sir."

"Wrong."the Illusive man replied. "You are hereby a sergeant grade one, and stripped of your position as the leader of Nighthound. Furthermore, you are off-duty until further notice."

The former lieutenant stared into the floor. "Yes, sir."he repeated silently and nodded slowly; what else could he do?

"Good."the Illusive Man uttered nonchalantly. "Now if you excuse me, I have things to do. Good day to you."

* * *

The batarian stood by the large window that separated him from space, staring into the black void. He stood with his hands tied together behind his back. He let his right index finger slide across the back of his left hand, feeling the barely visible fur that was spread across his entire body. He listened to the noises of the command bridge of his ship. The crew where walking around, going on with their regular business. The navigators sat by their computers, making calculations and whatnot.

"Mr. Ganackk..."the batarian heard behind him. He turned around and saw a salarian in green armor looking at him. He had a datapad in his right hand. "New information from the Shadow Broker, sir."He held out the datapad. Ganackk tore the pad from the salarian's grip and looked at it as he turned back towards the window.

_Mr. Sayó Ganackk_

_I have received information that you may find interesting. Only yesterday, a group of Cerberus agents attempted a kidnapping on a quarian. She herself killed four of them, but the rest was killed by another of my clients – one that has asked to not be mentioned. However, this is of no importance to you. But what I'm about to tell you might be._

_The quarian was Tali'Zorah vas Normandy nar Rayya, a member of the Normandy SR2 crew. She was also with the group that attacked one of your headquarters. The interesting thing was that Shepard seemed completely determined to rescue her. The mission ended with the demise of another on Shepard's team, as my client was still there; he share your goal. He told me that when Shepard and the quarian met at the base, they embraced each other warmly, suggesting on a quite intimate relationship. But with the amount of credits you sent me for this information, I will simply leave it here and let you make your own conclusions._

_-SB_

"'But with the amount of credits you sent me...'"Ganackk quoted, before grunting in irritation. "Asshole..."

He then realized the meaning of what he had just read. He smiled. Those Cerberus guys weren't as stupid as they seemed. He lifted his gaze from the datapad and looked at the reflection of the salarian behind him in the glass. "The quarian is the key..."

The salarian turned to the reflection of his commander and looked at him with confusion. "Key, sir? Key to what?"

"To Shepard, you moron!"the batarian shouted as he turned around and stared at the salarian. "What did you think – house of Santa Claus?"

The salarian backed off at the aggressive response, like he was ready to sink down into his shoes. "Who?"

Ganackk sighed. "Shut up." He turned to the rest of the crew on the bridge. "Set course for Illium – they're apparently still there. Dead or alive – get me that quarian!"

But the crew didn't start working as he expected. Well, the humans did, but not the rest. Instead, one of the navigators – a turian – rose up from his seat. "Hey, who's this Sadda Claws?"

Ganackk's mind stopped, snapped. He pulled his hand down his face; was this a joke? "Shut up! Shut the fuck up and get us to Illium!"he screamed across the bridge.

The turian continued speaking. "Hey, I'm just curi..."he couldn't say anything more before a pistol slug painted his brain on his chair.

Ganackk lowered his pistol, smoke rising from it's barrel. He turned to the rest of the crew. "You have some motivation to work now, you retards!"he screamed. Everyone immediately started working with their computers, and the pilot suddenly seemed a little more nervous.

The batarian shook his head in pity at his ridiculous crew. He turned back to the window and once again stared into the void. _"You thought you counted me out, Shepard."_he thought. _"But I'll be back in the game soon enough."_

"Exactly how are you going to get your hands on that quarian?"Ganackk heard a female voice from a spot to his right hidden in shadows. "I doubt you will be able to just go in there and grab her."

A grin spread across the batarian's face. "That's where you come in, dear. You..."

"Don't call me that."the voice cut him off. "I work for you for the time, nothing more."

Ganackk's grin grew wider. "As you wish, then. But still, you are an expert at these things. How about you pay them a visit, gain their trust..."he looked into the shadows. "You know the rest..." He turned back to the window. "Shouldn't be a problem for someone as adorable as you..."

"You want me to cut your balls off?"the voice snapped, and a bit of a white hood was seen through the shadows as whoever was there turned her head towards him. The batarian looked back at the woman and saw a pair of ice blue eyes stare at him. The hood disappeared again as the woman turned away her gaze. "I'll do it, but I don't do live captures. And I expect a fat paycheck afterwards..."

The batarian laughed silently to himself. "Deal."

* * *

Shepard walked out of the bathroom with wet hair, fresh clothes and a few bleeding cuts on his cheeks; the shave was closer than expected. He stopped where he was when he noticed a colorful animal swimming around in his aquarium. He walked over to it to give it a further inspection. There was a note on the glass.

_Hello, my name is Francis and I'm a Rainbow Corvaile from Horizon. I'm alone for now, but maybe I can have some friends later? I don't like being alone. I also don't like dirty aquariums. Clean it, would you? But I do like being fed. I hope we'll get along just fine._

_p.s. Do not touch me, for your own sake. I am pretty poisonous._

Shepard chuckled as he read the text. It was clearly Kelly's handwriting. She had made several lines under the word "fed", just to make her message clear. "Yeah yeah, I'll feed it this time."he laughed.

He went to study the beautiful fish that swam around in the clear water. It had a shape that reminded of a classical goldfish, but it was bigger and slightly different in shape and color. The animal's body was covered in stripes of red, yellow and purple while it's head and pectoral fin where light blue. It had three spiny dorsal fins that ran across it's back. The first two where purple; the smaller, third one was yellow. It's caudal fin was also yellow, while the anal and pelvic fin where red. It indeed looked like a swimming rainbow.

Shepard shook his head and looked away in an attempt to focus on more important things. He walked over to the desk behind him. He sat down in the chair and gave the model ships in his display a glance. He still needed the model of a turian cruiser to complete his collection.

Shepard shook his head again; he was once again distracted. He activated his private console and noticed he had an unread message. It was from Liara. He opened it and read through the lines.

_Shepard. I heard what happened last night. If you can, I want to talk to you about something that I cannot mention in this message. But it is important and may help you with your new foe. Come to my office as soon as you can._

_-Liara_

Shepard made a silent droning. Every bit of information on this Raven would be helpful. But he somehow didn't feel like going to Liara. _"Come on John, drag your ass over there."_he thought. _"Don't get lazy now."_

"Alright..."he said to himself. "Time to pay her a visit."He got up from the chair and walked out of his quarters, went down the elevator and arrived at the CIC. Kelly made a quick nod as the commander walked past. Shepard looked out the holes in the wall again. _"Thank God it's summer."_he commented to himself.

He reached the door and pressed the holopad. The door slid open and he was once again staring into the wall of the Nos Astra docking bay. He gave a quick glance at his gear, but shrugged it off. _"Won't need that now. What could happen on such a short distance as this?"_

He walked out of the door and headed towards Liara's office. _"Well...here we go."_


	20. Chapter 19:An interesting day

The hangar lied empty except for a few guards that patrolled the area. A large cargo ship had arrived only about an hour ago, so the large room was flooded with cargo crates of different shapes and sizes. The content had been labeled "classified", and no one had been allowed to look inside any of the crates. If only they knew what one of the endless boxes held...

The locks on the crate popped open and the lid slowly slid off and landed on the hangar floor with a light clatter; nothing that could be heard easily over the many machines in the area. Up from the crate rose a white hood with two ice blue eyes scanning the area from inside the shadow of the cloth.

The coast was clear, and the woman put her three-fingered hands on the edge of the crate. _"Not really the most fun way to travel, sitting cramped inside a crate that only goes up to your waist..."_she thought. _"Yet again, I've been through worse."_

The woman stood up and felt her knees burn and her spine crack from being in such an uncomfortable position for so long. _"I'm getting a massage after this."_she thought. She stepped out of the box of metal and placed her hurting feet on the cold floor. It felt unusually smooth and flat after having her feet pressed against some metal junk for who know how long. It was apparently too much to ask to be put in an empty crate at least.

She took another look around the area. A turian guard was standing in front of the door that led to the the maintenance area. It would have been much easier if he hadn't been there, but getting rid of him should still be a child's play. The only thing needed was to trick him with something every man want, no matter the species.

The walk over to the guard took longer than expected. The sheer size of the room made it a little harder to determine distance. The man could impossibly have seen her step out of the crate, but he seemed to wonder what this woman was doing there.

She stopped right in front of the guard and looked him in the eyes, but he seemed unable to return the glance. "Well hello there, hotshot..."she started with the most seductive voice she could make. "You know, I really need to use this door, so maybe if you..."

The guard shook his head. "Sorry, ma'am. Access to maintenance is restricted. As is access to this area – what are you doing here?"

The woman gave him a sly look and her fingertip across the chest on his armor. "Aw, come on. Maybe if I do you a...favor, you'd let me pass?"

The man threw a few unsure glances around the room, then turned back to her. "What do you mean?"he asked, but judging from the look in his eyes, he had a fairly good idea of what she meant.

The woman made a silent, seductive giggle. "You know..."

The turian's mandibles twitched and his eyes shot up. A bead of sweat appeared on his forehead. "Wait a minute, a-are you serious?"

The woman closed in on him, looked him deep into the eyes and gently placed her hand against his crotch, which made him swallow hard. "Does it look like I'm joking?"she whispered.

The guard looked around him several times to make sure no one was watching him. He turned back to the woman. "A-alright...this way."he turned to his right and began walking, probably to go to a place where they wouldn't be disturbed. But he only made three steps before the woman slipped her arms around his head from behind and twisted, breaking his neck with a series of loud cracks.

The man fell lifeless on the floor in front of the woman. She chuckled at how easy it was to get rid of him; they all had the same weakness. "Right..."she said silently to herself. "Time to get out of here. Lets find this shaft in there that the batarian spoke of."

She was going to open the door and wander into the maintenance area, when she saw the door to a locker room around twenty meters away. _"Yeah, right, dammit, I'm wanted here. The identikit looks nothing like me. New clothes should do."_

She made her way over to the door to the locker room, careful not to be spotted by any guards. They didn't seem to have noticed that one of them was dead. She opened the door and stepped into the room, then closed the door and sealed it tight. "Right..."she said to herself. "Time for some makeover."

She looked directly to her right and saw a large mirror showing a reflection of herself standing in the room. She pulled down her hood and looked at the face that met her. She ran a fingertip across the side of her long fringe and the pulled away her mandibles and studied her sharp teeth. _"Hm. I may be a turian...but I bet not even an elcor could resist this."_she bragged to herself.

She turned back to the room. A few dozen lockers covered all four walls of the room, with exception from the area where the mirror was. She scanned the names at the top of the lockers. Each worker had their name written in their own people's text. She was looking for turian script.

She read the labels on all the lockers several times before she realized she had read the right one more than once. "Zari Keneron" it said with small, jagged letters. With a few hits, the lock broke and the woman opened the locker. There hung a very neat and fashionable outfit. She laughed when she noticed that it was almost exactly like the one she was wearing, only black with different patterns and a golden line went along the edge at the hood. It also had a brown belt with a lot of different bags on it. The woman made a turian equivalent of a smile. "Sorry, miss Keneron, but I'm afraid I need this." She slid the outfit off the hanger and took and extra look at it. _"She's got good taste..."_

* * *

"You wanted to see me, Liara?"Shepard said as he entered Liara's office. He placed himself in the chair in front of her desk and waited for her response; she was searching through something on her computer and seemed concentrated.

Liara pulled her gaze from the monitor and looked at him. "Shepard. Yes. I have some information that you might find helpful."She got up from her own chair, walked over to the window just behind her and studied the towering skyscrapers that stretched like pillars up in the sky, like they kept the whole thing up. "I heard you where attacked last night. I am sorry for the loss of your friend." She turned back to him. "But that is not what I wished to speak to you of." She walked over to her chair and sat back down. "It is about your attacker..."

Shepard sighed. "He calls himself 'Raven'. I don't know who he is or where he came from."he shook his head helplessly. "Hell, I don't even know what he is. He didn't have any features of any species...yet all of them at the same time..."

Liara nodded. "Yes. I have heard about this mysterious figure. My sources tell me he has been killing around the galaxy for about twenty years. He has left no traces after him, and all cases he is supposedly behind where unsolved."She stopped and watched her left hand as it tapped with its fingertips against the desk. She seemed to be thinking of something. She then looked back at him. "I think you are dealing with the best – and most dangerous – assassin in the galaxy."she continued.

Shepard frowned. "Well, do you know anything particular about him? Where he's from?"

The asari shook her head and she stared distantly into the air next to him. "No. I do not know where he came from, or even what he is..."she turned back to him and locked her eyes with his. "But he apparently has got some history with Heinrich Kneffler – the leader of the Juggernaut mercenary band; they both want the other one dead. I am guessing he knows something."

Shepard nodded, barely enough to notice. "Alright – where is this guy? Here on Illium, like everything else seems to be?"

"No."Liara started. She did not let go with her glance from his eyes. "Mr. Kneffler lives on Earth, in the city of Berlin to be exact."

Shepard felt a sting in his chest. Memories of his childhood passed through his mind in an instant. Not Earth. Not again. "Liara, you know I never want to go back to that place."he said silently to the asari.

"If you want to learn anything about your new enemy, Shepard, you have no choice."she explained. The commander saw a hint of sorrow and regret in her eyes. She knew very well what he had been through on that planet. "Kneffler is not a man that will come to you."she added.

Shepard sighed. "Fine. But what if he decides to kill me, like everyone else seems to do? I've seen those troopers he got, and I tell you, they're not screwing around."

Liara made an ensuring smile. "I do not think he would want to kill you if you share his goal. Heinrich Kneffler is heartless, opportunistic...but far from stupid. He will most likely see you as a way to do what he has failed with himself for the past twenty years..."

She pressed a single button on her computer and a pair of files seemed to open. Shepard couldn't determine what it said since the text was both in asari and mirrored, but he saw the pictures of two familiar armored figures show up on the screen. Liara made a quick look on the screen, then turned back to him. "I'm guessing you ran into the two Juggernauts called Scorpio and Zeus – they are the best of them and McSullivan bought them from Kneffler for quite a sum."

Shepard chuckled. "Where the best. They're dead now since we blew up the ship. We don't need to worry about them."

Liara raised an eyebrow. "Actually, my sources tell me they are both alive and are currently over at Kneffler's home in Berlin. I'm guessing they found an escape pod to get away in."

Shepard's eyes shot open, yet he didn't feel particularly surprised; why wouldn't his luck make everything as complicated as possible? "Then how the hell do you expect me to go and have a chat with Kneffler? Those two tried to kill us on that ship!"

The asari in front of him nodded slightly. "Yes, they did. But you need not to worry, Shepard. Kneffler have made sure to...delete such things as sorrow, remorse, fear and personal anger in his top elite. They are basically robots made by flesh and everything they do, they do because the one currently holding them under their command told them to. In short: they will not kill you unless Kneffler – who is once again their boss since McSullivan died – orders them to."

Shepard threw a glance to his right, but he wasn't looking at something in particular. "I also noticed that they where pretty quiet..."He let the words hang in the air.

Liara leaned forward in her chair and rested her arms on her desk. "As I said, they are like machines. I'm guessing they will not talk unless they find a reason they deem good enough."She scratched a place on her chin with a fingertip before turning back to him. "But really, that is not what this conversation was about. I already told you what you need to know, Shepard. Go to Earth, find Kneffler and see if you can get any information out of him. Once you are ready to go, I will send a message to him to let him know you're coming, but that is all I can do."

Shepard nodded. "See you around, Liara."

"Yes, I think you will. We have tried telling each other good bye three times before, but you always come back shortly after." the asari joked. Shepard didn't respond. He rose from the chair and once again walked out from the office and down the stairs. Just when he reached the bottom of the stairs and was going to round the corner, he felt a thud in his body as someone walked right into him. It seemed to be a woman in black robes with a golden stripe running across the edge of the hood.

"Oh, sorry."he heard from inside the hood. The woman turned to him and he saw the face of a turian woman; he couldn't remember seeing one before. She seemed quite like male turians, except she had a smaller head, more compact face and a longer fringe. She had light brown scales with a turian insignia tattooed in her face, and a pair of ice blue eyes that seemed magical. She seemed young, probably only in her mid-twenties.

"Wait a minute..."the woman pointed at him as she stared into his eyes. "Are you...Shepard? Commander Shepard? The one who took down Saren?"she threw the questions out of her mouth, and she seemed more agitated for every word.

Shepard smiled. "I see you've heard of me."he laughed as he grabbed a three-fingered hand that the woman had stretched out in front of him. "And you are?..."

The woman's eyes shot open, like she didn't expect him to ask about her. "Oh! I'm Nikhir, Nikhir Veilon."she exclaimed as she shook his hand.

Shepard let go of her hand as soon as she had stopped shaking it. He leaned back to take a better look at her. She had a Predator pistol in her belt, together with a turian combat knife, as well as an Incisor sniper rifle on her back. She was certainly no regular citizen, yet she didn't wear any uniform neither. "What are you doing here, Nikhir?"he asked.

The woman named Nikhir made a short laugh. "Well, actually...I was looking for you. I heard you where here, and I'd like to talk to you."

Shepard crossed his arms with a smile. "Really? And why would you want to talk to me?"he asked.

"Because you might need another gun in your crew, would you not?"She reached back with her arm and tapped the butt of her sniper rifle. "Trust me – I know how to use one of these."she stated. She threw her knife up in front of her face with a single pull out the case and caught the blade from the side. "And one of these."she added.

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"He took the knife out of her hand and studied it. It was a classical turian combat knife with a firm grip and large curved blade with engraving on the sides. He threw the knife up, flipping it in the air and making it land back in the palm of his hand with the grip. And without warning, he thrust with the knife at her, aiming for her stomach. But she immediately grabbed his wrist and twisted it hard, which made him drop the knife and it fell to the floor with a clang.

"Impressive."Shepard laughed as he caressed his hurting wrist. The woman made an equivalent of a smile, bend down and picked up the knife. "You certainly know your thing."he continued.

"You sure have a strange way to test someone's skill."Nikhir chuckled as she put the knife back into the case. "What if I hadn't reacted? Would you just have stabbed me?"

Shepard made a short laugh. "No, back when I was a soldier in the Alliance, one of the officers used to test our reflexes that way. You can learn to do that without hurting the soldiers if they are slow."

Nikhir raised a brow plate. "You humans sure have strange ways."She put her fists on the sides of her waist and looked at him. "But that's just fine by me. So can I help...in some way?"

Shepard scratched his cheek. It felt strange for it being smooth there after having that stubble for so long. "Actually, we might have some use of you. Do you know where the Normandy's docked?"he asked. Nikhir nodded. "Wait outside there. I have another thing to do."he continued.

* * *

The woman nodded. "Alright, see you there."she said. She then walked past him, past the numerous kiosks and towards the dock. She heard the commander walk in another direction behind her. "_This is going like a dance."_she laughed inside her head.

When she walked through the doorway that led into the reception-area of the dock, she opened her omni-tool, pressed a few buttons and her earpiece sparked to life. She immediately heard Ganackk's voice. "So, how did it go?"

"Child's play."Nikhir responded. "Just had to show him my stuff and I was in."

"Your 'stuff' huh?"the batarian chuckled at the other end. "Yeah, I bet that was interesting."

Nikhir sighed. "Look, ass-face, you want me to do this or not?"

"Hey, calm down."Ganackk laughed. "What did I ever do to you?"

"If I would tell you everything, I would be standing here all day."she snapped at him.

"Alright, whatever. I want you to get into their ship and find a way to capture the quarian as soon as possible."

Nikhir shook her head. "Did you forget what I said earlier? I don't do live captures. If that quarian is leaving that ship in anyway, its in a body-bag."

"Whatever, I don't need her alive anyway. But take the first chance you get; make sure you're alone with her, and do it quietly. It would be too bad if your beautiful face would take a scratch."

The woman sighed again. "Go to hell."She turned off her earpiece and continued to walk towards the dock, where the Normandy was nicely attached to the side of the building. _"I could have just blown the shit up, but noooo. Makes me all bitchy."_she thought. She made another heavy sigh; that batarian was unbelievable. _"Lets just get this over with."_

* * *

Raven sat in the chair, stirring his drink around in the glass with simple centrifugal force. He didn't bother remembering the name of the club he was in, but their drinks where good and he disappeared easily among the crowds of juveniles that flocked the dance floor as well as the bar. He hated the way he looked. He always had to wear some ridiculous disguise to cover his entire body, including the hands. There was so much that could give him away. _"And I look like I'm in a dessert in this one."_he thought.

And that he did. He had a large, light brown robe wrapped around his body. The large hood hid his face in shadows, the sleeves hid his four-fingered hands and a pair of black goggles sat above his gasmask, covering his eyes. Sunglasses had been enough before, but they did little to cover his "souvenir" from Tali, unlike the goggles.

But his disguise didn't turn out to be enough; he was still quite a protagonist. "Hey, you with the flag!"he heard someone shout behind him. He turned around and saw a human that looked like he was barely an adult. He stood up from his original place; in a couch around five other humans. When Raven looked at the man, he pointed at him. "Yeah, you!"he shouted. "Come over here!"

Raven shook his head slowly and turned back to his drink. _"I got no time for little punks."_he thought. He opened a tiny hatch on his gasmask, where he poured some of the drink in, of which he then swallowed quickly. _"Ugh. Hate drinking like this."_

He then suddenly felt a hand hit him in the back of his head. "Hey you freak, I'm talking to you!"he heard the human shout at him. "Who the fuck do you think you are?"

The human came in from his left and looked at him. "Hey metal-head? Look at me." Raven didn't acknowledge him. "Fucking look at me!"the man screamed at him, which made the assassin finally turn his head and stare at him, but his eyes couldn't be seen through the black, polarized glass. "Hey, who the fuck do you think you are?"the human continued. "You think you can just fucking ignore me like that? Huh?"the man hit him in the back of his head again. Raven didn't care. The fact that the masked assassin didn't say anything seemed to make the human angrier. "Fine."the human,started, before spitting a large hump of snot and saliva in his drink. "Have it your way."

Raven looked into the glass where the yellow lump floated in the purple drink. The human's friends where laughing loudly as the man walked back to them. Raven's face broke up in a grin. _"Oh, you're gonna pay for that, you punk."_ He removed his glance from the drink and simply shoved it aside, which made the humans laugh even more. That made the sniper feel the anger grow in him, but he managed to keep it down. _"Relax, Raven, you can take care of him later."_the voice inside his head said.

Raven remained at his seat for a few hours. He watched the human juveniles through the reflection on the drink in his glass. When he finally saw them get up and leave, he left the drink where it was, left a paycheck and followed them out.

The streets of the city was where dark and mostly empty. He was still on Illium, but far away from Shepard; the sun hadn't risen there yet. Raven watched the youngsters standing just outside the club, talking about something. He followed them through the streets, careful to not get detected. He saw the one that had spat in his drink turn into an alley while waving goodbye to his companions. The assassin remembered that there was a door a bit into that alley. He quickly disappeared into the shadows.

The human walked down the alley, listening to the noises of the city. A gunfight raged somewhere in the distance and sirens where heard here and there. Just when he walked past a metal door – an old one that you had to open manually – he heard some strange sound from inside, almost like breaths. He closed in on the door, curious. The door suddenly slammed open and two four-fingered hands dragged him into a poorly lit room.

Raven slammed the man against the wall right next to the door and landed two hard punches in his face. But the man only seemed to get angry. "I'll fucking kill you!"he screamed. Raven then threw him across the room and he landed in a rack full of different tools and objects. He didn't lie there for long before the sniper grabbed his shirt, pulled him up and slammed him into a work bench.

Raven slammed the man a couple of times into the bench - mostly with his head – until his head had been beaten bloody. Now he sung a whole different song. "Please, please stop!"the man pleaded while Raven slammed his head a few more times into the hard metal surface.

Rave then pulled down his hood. "Look at me!"he screamed as he ripped off his goggles, revealing his amber and his robotic eye. "Do I look like someone to fuck with?"

The man seemed shocked, afraid and half-dead at the same time. "No! No you don't! Please, don't hurt me anymore! It was just a joke!"Tears began running down his beaten face. Several of his teeth where missing and his nasal bone seemed broken. Raven felt no sympathy towards this pathetic creature.

The assassin pulled the man closer. "Wrong answer."he whispered silently into his ear. He then grabbed a metal object that he had caught in the corner of his eye, and just happened to be very sharp. He swung with the object towards the man's neck.

"No! Please!"the human screamed as the blade-like object sunk into his throat. His pleading turned into panicked gurgling as the blood oozed into his throat. Raven pulled the object out and repeated the process, cutting deeper into the man's neck. He kept going, and kept going, and didn't know when to stop. By now, the human was already dead, but he went after the voices in his head. He closed his eyes and departed from the rest of the world, like he was no longer there. His arm kept chopping in a cadenced, mechanical pattern. Blood was spraying over the walls and on his face and robe.

The voices suddenly stopped. He opened his eyes and found himself holding the man in the hair. He held the head dangling above the body. He watched the lacerated throat and neck of them man. He didn't know how many time he had chopped, but judging from the wounds in the flesh, it had to be at least sixty times. A twisted expression had stuck on the man's face.

Raven dropped the head and watched it roll across the floor. He grinned widely and pointed at the head with a claw. "Now that's what you get for fucking with me, punk."he panted with exhaustion.

"_You're learning. Good."_he heard inside his head. _"Now we both know who to go for next, don't we?"_ He dropped the sharp object that was now a murder weapon and smirked. "Shepard."

"_Exactly."_

Raven pulled up the sleeve of his robe on the left arm and studied his list of names. He ran a claw across the scar tissue that had been created when he wrote Shepard's name.

"Keine Sorge, Shepard. Ich werde dich zu töten auch."he whispered to himself.


	21. Chapter 20:Nikhir

Shepard stepped on board of the Normandy. He concluded that Nikhir was inside, since she was not outside. Jacob stepped up to him as he walked through the door. He had a bothered look on his face.

"Commander..."the man started with a salute. "We've got some turian in here – said her name was Nikhir. She said you had sent her here, and she does look like she knows as much of combat as the rest of us."

Shepard nodded. "Yeah, she's got some skills in close-quarter combat, that's for sure. We would need another on the team."He crossed his arms casually on the last part.

Jacob leaned in closer to him and threw a glance to where Shepard guesses Nikhir was. "Is that really wise, Commander?"he asked. "To just pick up someone on the street that says she can fight? We have no idea where she came from."

Shepard sighed. "Look, Jacob, I understand your concern, but we need all the help we can get right now. We can't afford to turn away aid with the reapers incoming. But we'll keep an eye on her if that makes you happy."

But Jacob didn't seem particularly happy. "So what then? We'll just bring her onto our missions without even knowing how capable she is?"

"Of course not!"Shepard was quick to answer. "We'll give her some challenges while we wait for the ship to be repaired – test her skills."He walked past the man and gave him another look over his shoulder. "I'm not brain-dead just yet, Jacob."he said while picking with his fingertip on his temple.

Shepard saw Nikhir talking to Kelly by her console. "Nikhir."the human started. "I told you to wait outside the ship."

The turian turned to him. "I didn't know how long you would be gone, and I didn't want to stand there for too long." She shrugged. "Simple as that."

Shepard pointed a finger at her. "If you're not going to do as you're told, then you might as well leave this ship immediately, Nikhir. What if you 'don't feel like' following other orders?" He made a pause. "How did you get in here anyway? You don't just step aboard a military cruiser like that."

"Miss Veilon can be quite persuasive..."Shepard looked to his left and saw Kelly looking at him. "She seems to have a way to put things into...perspective."the woman continued.

Shepard began slowly rubbing his temple with a fingertip. "Kelly, did you let her in?"he asked. "Kelly, that is misconduct."he added when the woman made an innocent shrug. "Had you been under the command of someone else, you wouldn't get away easily with this."he made a pause. "Luckily for you, I'm in no mood to cast judgments."

Kelly seemed surprised at the sudden lecture. "Y-yes, Commander."she stuttered with a salute. "Won't happen again, I swear." The man looked at her. He could see in her eyes that she had about forgotten that the Normandy was still a military ship, but now she had got herself well reminded.

Shepard shook his head and turned to Nikhir who was standing behind him. Only now he noticed that she was almost as tall as he was. "Well, Nikhir..."he started and threw a quick glance at Kelly to check if she was looking at him. When he noticed she wasn't, he turned back to the turian. "As I..." He stopped as an idea popped up in his head. It would keep the nosy crew from eaves-dropping and at the same time he could do a little testing on her – even if this test was quite useless.

He looked away for a second, but then turned back to the woman. "Do you mind if we hold on to this language?"he asked in floating French. "I would prefer to leave our words away from unwanted ears."

Nikhir raised an eyebrow, seeming a little impressed. "How do you know I can speak this language?"she asked in French, although hers was a bit rusty, and pronunciations where different since she had mandibles instead of lips.

Shepard made a short laugh. "I don't."he responded. "But I heard some turian academies teach French – I don't know why. And it seems like no one has it registered into their translators. I figured that if you're as good as you say, you should have some decent education too."

The turian woman crossed her arms. "Not to be rude, but can you tell me what you wanted to tell me? I find it quite difficult with this language."she said, and Shepard heard that she struggled to pronounce the words right.

Shepard shrugged. "Fair enough. You said you could handle a rifle?"he asked. Nikhir nodded. "Then I suggest you have a talk with Garrus – he's our top marksman and a good soldier. He's down on the third floor, probably by the gun batteries."

The turian in front of him nodded, turned around and went for the elevator. Shepard remained at his place for a few seconds after the elevator doors had closed. He then too turned around and walked over to his terminal. He activated the terminal and opened the message screen.

_From: Commander J. Shepard_

_To: Lieutenant G. Vakarian_

_Garrus. Found a promising addition to the crew. Says she knows how to use a rifle. She's on her way down to you now. I want you to put her claim to the test in any way you can for the following weeks._

_She also seems to need a little training in discipline. Expect some non-professional behavior._

_-Shepard_

* * *

Garrus stood at the gun batteries, as usually calibrating everything, when his console right next to him beeped. He opened the console and found a new message from Shepard. He opened the message, read through the lines and then raised a brow plate. "How the hell am I supposed to test her inside a ship?"he asked himself.

"Do what?"the man heard a woman say behind her. He turned around and saw a turian woman standing in front of him by the doorway, leaned against the side of the threshold with her weight put on her right leg. He saw her make a questioning frown towards the floor just behind him. He looked behind him and saw that he had accidentally hit his console with his elbow when he turned around, causing it to crash into the floor.

The woman looked at him about a second after he turned back to her. "Are you Garrus?"she asked. You could see that she was still wondering about the console.

It took a few seconds for Garrus to realize she had said something. "Uh y-yeah."he said. He took her hand when she stretched it out and shook it for a second. "And you are?..."

"Nikhir."the woman answered. "Nikhir Veilon. Commander Shepard sent me here to..."

"Get your skills tested. Yes, I know."Garrus cut her off. "I got a message from him just recently. It's good to have you here, Ms. Veilon. I hope we'll get along well."

Nikhir nodded and made a turian smile. "I'm sure we will. So..."she shrugged. "Do you have anything planned?"

Garrus scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Actually...no. I don't think we can do anything right now. There's no areas on the ship where we can practice neither long nor close combat, and I doubt we'll just be able to do anything on the streets of Illium." He made a pause. "You know what? How about you get the day off while I talk to Shepard about this? You can check out the rest of the ship."

Nikhir smiled and turned around. She turned her head to her left and looked at him with one of her ice-blue eyes. "I like you as teacher already."she giggled. She walked out of the door that had recently opened for her.

When the woman exited the room, Garrus breathed out heavily as he tore down his facade of professionalism. He felt his heart pound heavily, erratically; sometimes skipping a beat. He clenched his hands into fists to make them stop shaking. He felt a drop of sweat run down his neck. He buckled his knees to keep them from giving away and making him drop to the floor. _"By the Spirits, she's beautiful!"_

* * *

Nikhir walked out of the room with a smile on her face. _"He was kinda cute."_she thought. _"Hope I won't have to cut his throat later."_

She walked past the medical bay, where she stopped immediately when she saw a quarian through the window, sitting in one of the beds, talking to a doctor. It certainly wasn't the right circumstances to wring her neck off, but it was a good time to get some information of her.

She waited by the window, watching the two in their conversation. They didn't see her apparently. The doctor had her back turned towards the turian, and the quarian didn't seem to notice her.

The doctor finally turned to the door and left the room, then walked through the mess hall and disappeared around a corner. Nikhir walked away from the window, turned around the corner to her left and went through the door.

The quarian noticed her immediately. "Who are you?"she asked. Nikhir felt her heart skip a beat as she realized she could drive a scalpel through the woman's throat this very moment. But her excitement was erased when she remembered that everyone outside would no doubt notice her, and she would surely not make it out of there alive. If there where something her life had taught her, it was to never underestimate an enemy. That is why she had survived where others had fallen.

The turian smiled warmly, completely hiding her intentions and instead giving an image of kindness and trust; a lifetime of practice in all it's glory. "My name is Nikhir."she said with the friendliest voice she could make. "I'm new to this place, and I'm checking around a bit." She stepped over to the bed and stretched out her hand.

"Why, hello Nikhir."the quarian said with a smile under the glass and shook her hand gently. "I'm Tali. Tali'Zorah vas Normandy." She let go of her hand. "Said you where new to this place?"

Nikhir nodded. "Yes, I actually am."she smirked. "I was really going to do some 'testing' to check my skills, but my...coach went to have a chat with the commander about the ability to do that here."

"What?"Tali asked with a smirk on her lips. "Here, on Illium? What did he expect?"she laughed. Nikhir shrugged with a chuckle.

"So what do you do here?"Nikhir asked as she pulled up an armchair that she turned around the wrong way and sat down, leaning against the backrest with her arms. She began tapping with her foot at the floor to an old song she remembered from her childhood.

Tali seemed surprised over the question. "I'm an engineer."she said with a wave of her hand. "Isn't that obvious?"

"No. Why?"Nikhir asked while barely moving a muscle where she sat on her chair. The only thing that moved was her eyes and her right foot that kept tapping to the melody in her head.

"Well, I'm a quarian."the woman replied.

"So?"

"It's just that...most people assumes that all quarians are some kind of engineers or something."she said. She seemed quite surprised of someone not making any assumptions.

The turian made a short laugh. "You know, I once worked with two guys from the MFM."

"Migrant Fleet Marines?"the quarian asked.

"Yup."Nikhir answered while looking away for a moment, looking back to the days she was still a mere mercenary. She turned back to Tali. "Good men. Didn't really know as much about electronics and that stuff as most other quarians, but they where damn good soldiers. I was a mercenary back then. We where going to hit a red sand smuggling ring on some human colony – don't remember it's name."

The quarian suddenly seemed very interested. "But didn't you say they where marines? What happened to them?"she asked, impatient for answers.

Nikhir chuckled. She didn't expect telling a story of her life to someone she was sent to kill. But she didn't really have anything else to do, so why not? "Actually, they where both ex-marines."she started. She looked into the wall to her right for a moment, like she was looking through a window and caught sight of something interesting outside. "We where a group of twelve – me, the two quarian guys, four humans, two asari, two batarians and another turian."She made a pause. "It was a goddamn trap"she said while shaking her head, still staring into the silver wall next to her. "Our employer had sold us out. I was the only survivor. The rest where..."She made a short pause. "Slaughtered."

"I'm sorry."Nikhir heard from her left. It came like a punch in the chest. No one had ever said that to her.

"Don't."she said in an attempt to hide the psychological hole in her chest. "I didn't know them...too well."she explained. She was lying. Sure, most of them where complete strangers to her, but one...

"You must have known them a little bit."Tali insisted. "You must have talked with the quarians – for example – and found out that they where from the MFM. And they must have told you why they left the fleet..."

Nikhir sunk her head and instead stared at her feet. The memories weighed too heavily on her mind. She should never had brought it up. "They never told me. But sure, I asked them."she said with a heavy shrug.

The turian sat there for a few seconds, hiding her face under the black hood, and with it the tears that appeared in her eyes. She didn't want to talk to anyone about this. When Tali put a hand on her shoulder, she waved it off with her arm, stood up from the chair and walked out of the room as fast as she could without running.

She walked out of the med-bay, past the mess hall with the many crewmen staring at her. She stopped just outside the elevator, where she leaned against the wall and stared into the floor. She crossed her arms tightly against her body, mostly to feel more secure. It also made her feel pathetic. A tear ran down her cheek and landed on the floor. Her mind was drawn into memories.

_The woman sat in the quarters she had been given. The shuttle that would take them planet-side wouldn't arrive until tomorrow, so each in the team had been issued a private quarters to get some rest for the big operation. It wasn't much for comfort though; cramped, poorly lit and dirty. But she was happy as long as she had a real bed. She sat on her bed, tapping to that familiar melody that she didn't remember where she learned it from. She had just known it for as long as she could remember. The lamp next to her marked out the dust that circled around in the air. It somehow made her feel more comfortable._

_The door to her room suddenly slid open. She looked to her left and made out the silhouette of a turian through the strong light that flooded in from the corridor outside. The man leaned against the door frame, looking at her. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized who it was. "Zaz!"she exclaimed with a fresh smile on her face._

_The man returned the smile and walked over to her. She then noticed that he had nothing but a pair of light brown pants on him. "How you doing?"he asked as he sat down next to her. The drab green eyes looked at her magically, and the light from the lamp – which was the only light in the room since he had closed the door behind him – was caught in the scars that went across the right side of his face like cracks in a broken mirror. He had never told her how he got those scars, and she had decided that she probably didn't want to know._

"_I'm fine..."she said quickly while turning away from him; just his glance often made her blush. She tied her hands together in her lap and had her thumbs play with each other. He had already seen through her._

"_Nikhir..."he said quietly and grabbed her left hand, lifted it and moved it over to his own lap. She looked at him. "How are you really doing?"_

"_I..."she started, but found no words. She sighed and tried again. "I'm nervous. Really nervous. I have no idea how this will end."she said with a shake on her head on the last part._

"_I'm sure it'll be fine."Zaz responded. "If we just keep together, we'll make it without problem. Besides; we've got some of the best in the business with us in this."_

"_I'm twenty years old, Zaz!"she suddenly spat out with fear in her voice. "I've never gone through with something this big before. It's a job for a damn army. I know we need the money and all, but..."she pulled a quick sob as she realized she was beginning to cry. "I just don't want to lose you."_

"_Hey, hey..."he started in an ensuring tone. He put his fingers on her chin and gently pulled her face up to face his. "You won't. And I won't lose you. Just you see; we'll make it through this, and we'll use the money to set this entire mess right."_

_When the man wiped off a tear from her cheek, she pulled another sob and wrapped her arms around his neck. He responded the embrace. She felt the soft flesh on his neck pulsate with warmth, and his breaths warmed her own._

_The two pushed away from each other and their eyes locked together. Zaz then leaned in to her neck and softly bit the soft skin; it didn't even leave a mark. Nikhir breathed out in pleasure – something she didn't expect to feel by such an action – and she pressed herself closer unto him. His hands found their way to her shoulders, where they lifted her hood off her head and let it fall unto her back. They then traveled to her chest, where they worked with all the straps and what not that kept the suit in place. Her own hands worked their way down to his pants, where they slowly began sliding them off. Heat and pleasure soon filled her entire body in their intimate connection as the night danced away._

Nikhir opened her eyes and once again found herself on board the Normandy. She noticed that her cheeks where wet of tears and she had pressed her arms even tighter against her body. Five years had already passed, and the pain wasn't decreasing. Was she getting weak? She had never done this before. The way that quarian had talked had made her dig back into those unforgettable memories. She hated her for it.

Through her sobs she tried to concentrate on that song she had known all her life. She knew the text without a flaw, but she just couldn't remember where she got it from. She hummed on the calm melody and tried to let go off the moments of the past. When it didn't work, she just stopped humming and let out a deep sigh. But she didn't know anything else to do, so she started again. It didn't take away the man she had known years ago from her mind, but it helped ease the pain this time.

"_I'll have to do this job quick so I can get out of here."_


	22. Chapter 21:Painful memories

Tali opened her eyes and saw Dr. Chakwas standing in the doorway. She had tried to get some sleep, but what had happened Nikhir before had pondered in her mind. "How are you feeling?"the doctor asked with a warm smile on her face.

Tali smiled. "I'm fine, thank you."she said as the doctor walked over to her, the lights in the room casting her shadow across the med-bay. "Where were you?"she asked the doctor in front of her. "You took quite a while."

"I had a talk with Mordin about some...medical matters."she said, her smile never flinching. "And as you may know, that man loves to talk."she added, which made Tali's smile break up in a smirk. "Furthermore, I would like to do some tests to evaluate your health."

When Tali nodded, Chakwas pulled out some medical equipment, including a stethoscope and other things Tali didn't know the name of. After a brief examination, the doctor stepped back with a pleased smile. "Well, Tali, everything looks just fine. I don't think there is any reason for you to lie in bed anymore."

Tali smiled. That was good news. Even if the bed and the lack of duties had felt comfortable at first, now it was just dull and boring. She sat up. "Good."she said as she threw her legs over the edge of the bed and jumped off, hitting the floor with almost no sound. "Then I can finally have something to do."

The quarian walked past Chakwas without even waiting for her to answer, went through the door and towards the elevator. She had never thought it would happen, but she was happy to get back to work.

She saw Nikhir standing against a wall; the elevator to her right, around the corner. When Tali walked past, the turian lowered her head to hide her face under the hood. Tali didn't see the woman's eyes, but the light glimmered off a place on her cheek – like a moist stripe of water. If she had cried was unclear, but she had definitely shed a tear. She had known someone in that team she talked about. Closely. _"Better make sure not to bring up that subject again."_she thought.

She walked past the turian, around the corner, and stepped into the elevator, but not without the thoughts of what Nikhir had said pounding in her mind. The doors closed and she soon found herself down on the engineering deck.

She walked out of the cart and went towards her usual place. She walked through the doors and saw Ken and Gabby trying to fix some circuits that where damaged during the pirate hit. The electronics had taken a lot of hits. The two engineers where chatting about something. Tali silently closed in to hear what they where talking about.

"So lets get this straight..."Gabby said while trying to replace a burned circuit. "When the pirates attacked, you where conveniently down in the cargo hold, where you hid in a box the entire time, leaving me to take a shot to the stomach?"she interrogated Ken.

"Well what the hell was I supposed to do? Charge them with no gun and get the life beaten out of me? I saw what those bastards did to Gonzales! Busted his head open with a damn pipe, they did!"

Gabby looked over Ken's shoulder and saw the quarian looking at them. "Tali! Good thing you're here."she said, which made Ken look in the same direction and also see her. "We sure need some help with the repairs."Gabby continued.

Tali smiled. Everything had gone back to normal. "Sure. What do you need help with?"

* * *

Nikhir stood by the elevator doors. She grunted in annoyance when she realized she had a perfect moment to break that quarian's neck when she walked past her. "Come on, Nikhir, don't loose focus."she told herself. She looked to her right, where the elevator was just around the corner. "Well..."she continued. "Guess it's time to evaluate the position a little."

She walked around the corner and stepped into the elevator. She pressed the button for the fourth floor, where she guessed the engineering deck was, since the cargo hold was most likely at he bottom.

* * *

Raven sat in his chair, chewing on the last pieces of a way too spicy steak. He let his teeth sink into the meat and rip it apart, before swallowing it in the form of a large gray lump.

He swallowed the last piece of meat, put his arms on the table and looked around his apartment. He tapped with a claw on the small syringe that lied on the table right next to him. It was needed when he accidentally slammed his fist into the table, creating a large dent and dislocating two of his fingers.

Raven was just about to get out of his chair, when he was hit by a sudden feeling of being watched. He sat still in his place on the chair and stared into the table. He had learned to trust his instincts. It had saved his life several times. And his instincts told him that someone had his aim on him right now.

The assassin quickly got up from his seat and threw himself over the table. A window to his right exploded at the same time as a rifle slug passed by where he had been a second ago. He landed on his feet, turned around and looked where he had just been. The window was obliterated and the table had a large scorch mark. "I fucking knew it!"he shouted out as he went for his sniper rifle that he had left by the table.

He grabbed the rifle and threw himself against the wall, just by the window that had exploded. He took a few deep breaths, then turned with his rifle high and shot a slug through a sniper that was standing on the roof of the opposite building, right in front of him. The armored batarian that had shot at him stood in his place for a few seconds, then slowly turned around and fell down the building. But he didn't get far before a passing car blew him into pieces.

Raven only saw the sniper for a few seconds, but he recognized his armor: purple with a large white bear standing on it's back legs on the chest. _"Seems the fat man's good at finding people."_he thought.

Raven turned around and ran to the other side of the room, where a much larger window looked out over the city. He looked at where his shuttle was parked, not far from his door. He reached the window just in time to see his shuttle explode in flames and shrapnel. But Raven was not surprised. It was they who had taught him to plan his actions well. _"Looks like I have to do this the hard way."_

His attention turned towards the door when he heard voices behind it. He didn't recognize the voices, but he knew the language: German.

The door suddenly blew up, and a group of people with the same kind of armors rushed in. Raven started with getting their attention by slamming a turian's head into the wall, cracking the visor on his helmet. He then kicked a human in the head just as he raised his gun. At the same time, he unloaded a round from his sniper rifle through another turian's head. He continued with grabbing the turian that he had slammed into the wall and threw him into the other wall to his right. As he hit the wall, the turian's armor teared out a shred of metal out of the wall. Raven turned around and kicked a batarian down the stairs outside his door just before he was going to blast the assassin's back open with a shotgun. The batarian rolled down the stairs, then off the edge of the bridge that went to his building and fell down into the abyss of cars and shuttles.

Raven heard heavy steps to his side. He turned towards the sound and saw a krogan – who had apparently made his way in some other way – charging towards him. The assassin threw himself to the side, but he wasn't fast enough, and he felt a helmet slam into his side hard. Hard enough to send him gliding across the floor in the corridor at the right of the door.

Raven made his way back up on his feet as fast as he could, only to see the krogan once again charging towards him. The sniper responded with running towards the mercenary, but instead of colliding right into the mountain of muscles, he slided through between the man's legs, while at the same time unleashing a hail of gunshots at a salarian with the two pistols he had by his belt.

He got back up on his feet and stared at the krogan that just turned around to charge at him again. Raven looked at the shred of metal that shot out o the wall; he got an idea. He picked up the rifle from the floor where he had dropped it when the krogan hit him. But he had no more shots left in the rifle, and he didn't have time to load in another thermal clip. But he had other uses for it.

Just when the krogan reached him, Raven stepped to the side and slammed the butt of his rifle into the krogan's face. It barely did any damage, but it made the mercenary stop right in front of him. Raven then bashed his rifle at the alien's kneecap, which sent the man on his knees with his back towards the assassin. The krogan then received a kick in his back that sent him forward, and the metal shred in the wall dug its way through the mercenary's visor, through his eye and into his brain. Then he stuck there.

Raven looked around. It seemed no more of the mercenaries where coming in, but there was sure to be more waiting outside. He looked at the turian he threw into the wall. He was lying on the floor. He had removed his helmet and was holding his hand on a bleeding wound on his head. Raven walked over to him and lifted him up on his knees. He grabbed the turian's head and stared into his eyes. The man was terrified; you could see it in his eyes. But Raven didn't care how afraid he was. He would still die.

With a surge of strength, and a roar of agony that followed, the assassin grabbed the turian's left mandible and ripped it off. The turian screamed in pain until he got his own mandible driven into his mouth and through the back of his head.

Raven let go of the turian who sunk lifeless to the floor. When he hit the floor, the teeth that the assassin had punched out fell out of his mouth and spread across the floor with the sound of dropping pebbles on stone. Raven grinned at his own brutality.

He heard something else clatter against the floor. He looked at the doorway and saw what looked like a can roll over to him. He immediately turned around and ran further into the apartment, before throwing himself to the floor the second before the grenade blew up, scorching a large part of the corridor and the doorway.

Raven suddenly felt his lungs contract violently and he could no longer breath. A thick cloud of what looked like water flowing through the air – soft, crystal clear and ever-changing. The sniper got up on his feet and stumbled over to the kitchen where he had left his mask; it was impossible to breath in the gas that was flooding his apartment. His chest contracted painfully and his right eye water; his mechanical eye had no reason to.

He reached the table that stood in the middle of the room. He stretched out his hand to grab the mask, but he was getting dizzy and his eyes where getting blurry, and found it difficult to coordinate his hand correctly. Strangely, the gas didn't make him cough. It instead made his lungs contract so that he couldn't breath, but he knew the gas was somehow still getting into his body. You don't get blurry eyes and a dizzy feeling from not being able to breath for a few moments.

He made a final lunge at the mask, but his determination of distance had been weakened. Instead of putting his hand on the mask that rested on the edge of the table, he missed the table altogether and crashed into the floor.

The assassin finally managed a breath, but he immediately coughed it out again. He fumbled with his hands around the floor in search for something to keep him from falling into the dark pit of unconsciousness. He tried to push himself off the floor, but his muscles failed him and he once again slammed onto the cold metal.

He heard steps to his side. He turned his head and through blurry eyes he saw more mercenaries storm through the door; their helmets protected them from the gas. He saw a batarian step over to him with a rifle in his hands. The man raised his rifle, but instead of shooting the sniper in front of him, he turned the rifle around with the butt facing the assassin. Raven didn't even see the rifle butt closing in before everything went black.

* * *

Nikhir stepped out of the elevator and walked into the engineering, where she saw Tali and two crewmen repairing some electronics. She walked over to them and sat on the rail to her side, watching them. The three people gave her a quick glance when she closed in, but they immediately resumed in their work.

The turian felt her pulse rise again where she sat right behind the quarian. She imagined herself suddenly drawing her pistol and the world slowing down as she fired a slug right through the quarian's head, spraying blood, glass and brain matter on the other side. She made a deep sigh as she remembered that if she wanted to make it off the ship, she would have to kill Tali without anyone noticing until she was already gone.

_Nikhir slowly opened her eyes where she lied on the cold floor. She lifted her head and looked around the area. The crates full of red sand that where there when they arrived where gone. Now there was nothing but a lot of bodies there. Since the smugglers where almost all humans – the place being on a human colony after all – they made for most of the casualties. But she also saw her team lie still on the floor, some of them soaked in blood. Right in front of her was one of the quarians from her team. The man's eyes stared blankly at her through the cracked glass. She realized that they must have thought she was dead too._

_She pushed herself off of the floor. "Zaz?"she said out in the air. "Zaz!"she shouted out when no answer came. The only response was her own echo that sounded between the walls in the giant room, like the world's way to tell her that she was all alone._

_The turian threw herself up on her feet, but she felt her leg burn with pain and she remembered the rifle slug that almost shattered her shinbone. She began limping across the floor, her leg pounding for every step. She stepped over the many bodies that littered the floor. She walked past a broken YMIR mech that had it's arm ripped off and a couple of circuits in the head where sparkling with electricity. The complete silence made the whole scene seem so surreal. She looked up and saw light fall through a part of the ceiling that was made of glass, splitting up in squares on the floor. She must have been unconscious for quite a while; it was dark when she and her team first got there._

_The woman looked to her right, and what she saw made her heart sink into her chest. On the floor, only about twenty meters away from her, lied a turian in black armor still on the floor. She ran over to the body, ignoring the pain in her leg. But it still made her fall when she had almost made it. She fell onto her knees and instead crawled the last short distance._

_She flipped the turian on his back and quickly took off the helmet. She was met with the face she hoped to the spirits she wouldn't find, but knew was there. "Zaz?"she whispered as she stared with despair at the pale face of the only real friend she had ever had. And more than that. "Zaz!"she screamed out as she shook his body in false hope to wake him up from his slumber. "Zaz!"she repeated and shook him again. She then realized the situation: he was dead. And she was alone._

_Nikhir suddenly felt her whole world crumble around her. Her chest exploded with pain and she felt the tears running down her cheeks and she had neither possibility nor desire to stop them. "Don't leave me here!"she cried out between the heavy sobs. "Dammit, don't leave me here! You promised!"She dropped down on the man's chest and buried her face between her crossed arms while crying heavier than she had ever done before. "You promised."she sobbed. "Everything would be alright." She looked up at his face. The scars in his face had gone pale and gray, and the eyelids that covered his enchanting drab eyes would never open again. "You can't just die like this..."she continued. "You can't just..."She couldn't even finish the sentence. She instead let her head drop back into her arms and she let the pain consume her._

Nikhir froze in her place at the sudden memory. Years had passed, but it could just as well been yesterday. _"Damn that quarian!"_she thought as she looked at Tali work with the two crewmen. She got off the rail and walked out of the room, hiding the new tears that had appeared in her eyes. She walked down the stairs to her right outside the door. She only walked down halfway before she sat down in a corner and slid her arms around her shins and curled up into a ball. _"Damn that quarian."_

* * *

Tali turned her head and saw Nikhir disappear through the door on the other side of the room. "Where's she going?"Gabby asked. Tali turned back to the two engineers.

"Ah, probably just curious of how the ship looks."Ken answered without even looking in Nikhir's direction. "You can't really expect her to stay long in the different places. Besides, what is there to see down here? There probably it isn't much fun in looking at three people repair burned out circuits. Except of course if someone gets zapped."

Gabby shrugged in response. "Guess you're right."

Tali shrugged too. "Who knows?"she asked rhetorically before continuing to work with the circuits. She tried her best to see unaffected, but she could sense that Nikhir was troubled, maybe even in some kind of pain. She must have known someone in that team well. _"I will have to talk to her sometime."_


	23. Chapter 22:A frozen moment

Nikhir sat by the bar on the crew deck, stirring around a drink in its glass. Not drinking it, just stirring it around, digging around in her mind. She looked behind her, out the window where the stars silently passed by far in the distance. Two weeks had passed since she came aboard the Normandy. She hadn't got another good opportunity to complete her job, but much else had happened. The ship had been repaired, an army of pyjacs had escaped from some pet store and invaded the ship, and much more. At one point everything seemed busy, with many things happening at once. But now everything was quiet and nothing was really happening. It was almost getting boring.

Nikhir turned back to her drink. She stirred it around a little more, then drank it all at once, feeling the purple liquid pour down her throat, leaving a bitter-sweet taste in her mouth. She twitched a mandible at the taste. She knew she had blended it wrong – it was supposed to be more blue.

She heard the door behind her open. She turned around and saw Garrus standing in the doorway. "What do you want?"she sighed, her voice clearly stating her lack of desire for a conversation.

The man shrugged. "I'm just looking around the ship for someone to talk to. Its getting pretty boring around here."

Nikhir turned back to the bar and began pouring up another drink. "Why not go talk to someone else?"

"Everyone's busy with their duties."

"Shouldn't you be too?"

"Woman, you are hard to start a conversation with."Garrus laughed and crossed his arms.

Nikhir looked down into her glass, where the same drink was now floating around, but it looked better this time. "Only when I don't want to talk."she responded coldly, then drank the liquid, this time the tastes mixed up into a completely new one instead of being separate. "And I don't want to talk."she added, but she changed her mind right after she said it.

"Fine."Garrus sighed. "I'll leave. Sorry for disturbing."Nikhir heard him turn around and face the ship corridors.

"Can you tell me something of the place we're going to?"Nikhir quickly asked, before Garrus could walk away and disappear into the ship. She turned to the man and nodded at a seat next to her, inviting him to sit down.

Garrus raised a brow-plate, but then walked over to her and sat down with a space of one seat between them. "About Earth?"Garrus asked. It wasn't really a question, but Nikhir nodded in response. He took out a glass and a bottle of liquor out of a cabinet before continuing. "Don't really know if there's something to tell that everyone don't already know. It's the human homeworld, but everyone knows that."He took his glass – which was filled almost to the edge with the transparent drink – and emptied it in one gulp. "I've heard there's some really nice wildlife there, but it's mostly around the equator, and we're going to a big city. Barely any animals there."

Nikhir looked up from her glass and stared distantly into the wall. "I've always wanted to go to Earth."she said, which made the man to her right turn his head and look at her. "I've always wanted to visit it's equator."she continued. "To see the wonderful nature that I've heard of so many times. There are barely any untouched places of nature left on Palaven, but I've heard its different on Earth. Oh, what animals there are there."She turned to Garrus. "Strangest things – for us of course, its perfectly normal for humans. Lions, elephants, seals – millions of species."She made a pause. "And then the north, where the sun is said to never go down during the summer."

"Its the same on Palaven. Millions of different species, and no night during the summer in the north."Garrus responded plainly.

"But it's all covered in cities!"the woman exclaimed with a gesture of her hand. "When was the last time you saw a savannah?"

Garrus opened his mouth to respond, but then realized that he didn't have any memories of ever seeing a savannah in real life. He had only seen it on TV or the extranet. His expression must have given him away, because he saw Nikhir sit next to him with a "there-you-go" look on her face. He finally got to word. "Isn't a savannah a kinda bad example?"he asked.

Nikhir shrugged. "Maybe..."She turned back to her drink, and an uncomfortable silence consumed the room. "So how long do you think it'll take before we get there?"she said after a few seconds, finally breaking the silence.

Garrus shrugged. "I'm not sure. Couple of hours at most. But I don't know how long it'll take before we get out on the streets. Berlin is apparently a very crowded and busy city, so maybe we'll just run right into a line."He was going to take another sip of the liquor he had just poured up, but he stopped himself when he remembered that he might be picked to go with the squad down. "Why are you sitting here drinking when we're about to go planetside?"he asked.

"I'm hoping to get drunk enough so that I won't be allowed to follow."Nikhir responded plainly, drinking up the last of the liquid in her glass, only to soon pour in more.

Garrus raised a brow plate in surprise. "But I thought you said you've always wanted to go to Earth..."

"I've collected some enemies through my years."Nikhir responded. "I'm not on very good terms with the Juggernaut, and the last thing I need is to walk right into their headquarters, or get spotted by one of the fat man's goons."she said, before sipping on the new drink in her glass. "No, siree. I'm staying here."

* * *

Tali walked into the captains quarters and was met with the sight of Shepard standing topless in the middle of the room with his back turned to her, trading blows with a fictional opponent. He made a few quick jabs with his left arm, then his right, then dodged an imagined punch and took a step to the right, before making a high kick towards a non-existent head. Tali smiled and leaned against the threshold as she watched him boxing with the air, his muscles flexing under his sweaty skin. "Back to training, I see?"Tali joked when she remembered her reason to come up there – it was not to watch her commander work out.

Shepard stopped, turned around and looked at her with a smile. "Well..."he chuckled as he stretched for a towel he had left on the table by the couch, right next to the prothean relic they had found on one of their missions. "If I'm to battle all the bad guys of the galaxy, I gotta stay in shape."he continued as he grabbed the towel and a water bottle that was right next to it, then throwing the towel over his neck. "Can't believe they didn't put a gym on this ship..."he said silently as he shook his head lightly. He then looked back at Tali. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to take a shower."He walked up the few steps and into the bathroom. Tali chuckled when she realized he didn't lock the door, just in case she decided to walk in.

Tali made another smile and stepped further into the room. She walked down the steps and looked around the quarters, despite that she had seen it countless times and knew every detail. She turned to the table by the couch, where the prothean relic sat obediently, it's fine surface reflecting the blue light from the aquarium. She walked over to it and gently touched the shiny ball with a fingertip. It immediately shrunk for a moment, that strange sound seeming to come from within. The ball returned to its normal size after a few seconds, only to shrink again since Tali hadn't removed her finger.

Tali removed her hand and turned her attention towards the aquarium behind her. Through the glass she saw the colorful fish that was apparently named Francis swim around, all by himself. She sat down on the table behind her and looked at the small fish as it swam around. It didn't really do anything else, it just swam around. Could probably not do anything else anyway.

"Have you been sitting there the whole time?"Tali heard from her left. She turned her head and saw Shepard standing in the doorway to the bathroom, wiping his hair with a towel. She must have been sitting there for a while.

"Well...yes."Tali said as she watched Shepard walk past her and pick up the shirt he had left on the bed. "Yes, it seems I have."

"And I take it you want something?"Shepard asked as he slipped into his uniform shirt. Tali realized that he seemed very relaxed considering that they where going to Earth – he had been avoiding that planet for years, after all.

"Well..."Tali said and began rubbing her hands together as she tried to remember what she had first planned to say. Her realization had made her completely forget, and after a while she just turned to the man with a smile. "I'm just checking out how you're doing, that's all."she explained.

Shepard shrugged and pulled the last piece of the shirt over his stomach. "Well, Tali, I would say I'm pretty fine."he responded. He then walked over to the aquarium and leaned with his back against the glass, crossed his arms and looked at the quarian. "I'm not really as nervous of going to Earth as I thought I was going to be."he continued. He pulled a deep breath, as if to smell the new freshness in the air after they cleaned the air filters. "Yet again, we're not going to the city I grew up in."he added.

"Commander, we're about to enter Earth's atmosphere. Arrival in Berlin in about thirty minutes."Jokers voice sounded in the speakers.

Shepard looked up in the ceiling as if Joker was hanging there talking to him. "Roger that, Joker. We're heading to the CIC."he said as he stretched out a large wrinkle on his shirt. He walked past Tali – who was still sitting on the table – and went for the elevator. "You're coming?"

* * *

"And you're sure we got all the clearances for this landing?"Shepard heard Miranda ask Joker from behind him where they stood on the command bridge – with the exception of Joker who was sitting. "I've heard how picky they are here in Berlin and I do not want to get stuck here while all the thousands of papers are re-checked."

"Yes, mom."Joker responded in an irritated tone. "Me and EDI have gone through everything. Twice. I'm pretty sure we got all the clearance, don't you worry your little head."The cockpit went silent, and Shepard looked over his shoulder and saw Joker smile at his little victory. After a while, the silence was broken when the clouds began lightening and Joker spoke up. "Well, here we are. Meine Damen und Herren..."he said in a rusty and mispronounced German. "Welcome to Berlin."he added as the clouds split open, revealing a huge metropolis of glass and metal stretching further than the eye can see. The city looked like it wouldn't be specifically dark at night, with all the lighting that seemed to be present. Skyscrapers that would put the Empire State Building at shame rose majestically above the city. You would almost expect some of them to stretch above the clouds. The upper parts of the buildings gave the light reflection of the sky, while the lower part showed an image of the dark streets, covered in shade by the buildings next to them. The whole city sprawled with life, with both people and cars down on the street, and shuttles up in the air, each towards its own destination.

"Flight command, this is SSV Normandy SR2, requesting permission to land."Joker spoke into the radio.

The radio gave a light sparkle – a trace after the soda the pilot spilled on the console. Then the voice of a middle-aged woman with a wide German accent. "Roger that, Normandy. All papers have been cleared out, and you are cleared to dock with docking cradle nine.

Joker pressed a few buttons, changing the ship's course. "Affirmative, command. Have a nice day."

The Normandy turned in to a large square building that stood lonely on a flat of grass with roads leading away from it in every direction. The humans where known for having large pieces of nature left in their cities – not just on certain spots, but all over the place. When they got closer, a number of docks could be seen near the roof. The Normandy circled around the building until they spotted a docking cradle with a big, white nine on it. The ship floated slowly into the dock and the docking clamps locked it on place.

"Well...we're here."Joker stated as the sealing clamps hissed silently as they locked themselves at the ship. Shepard nodded and went for the comm radio, but just before he touched the button to activate the device, he saw something in the corner of his eye, outside the window. He turned his head and saw a man standing on the dock, watching the ship. He was a medium sized human with a black suit – more modern than the ones with shirt and tie – and had short, black hair. More than that wasn't visible on this distance, other than that he had a light skin tone. He was standing straight with his chin up and his hands behind his back. There was no telling how long he had been standing there. "Looks like a welcome committee."Joker commented.

Shepard stared at the man for a few seconds. "Looks like that."he said. He then pressed the button for comm radio, activating it. "Legion. Grunt. Get up to the CIC. We're going planetside."

"Ah. Commander Shepard."the man in the suit said as the trio closed in to him. "I was afraid you weren't going to show." he joked with a smirk. He was speaking with the same German accent as the woman on the radio.

"Where you expecting us?"Shepard asked as he got in front of the man. He noticed that the man's face was full of scars of different kinds that all seemed to be of different ages. His normal duties did probably not include a suit.

The man's face broke up in a smile. "Of course, Commander."he said calmly. "Your friend Liara T'soni sent a message to us after all."He stretched out his hand politely.

"Are you from the Juggernaut?"Shepard asked as he took the man's hand and shook it gently. The commander never let his gaze let go of the man's eyes. There was something off with them, like something was missing.

The man nodded, his smile unable to fade away. "Indeed I am, Commander. My serial number is K-nine-eight-two-L, but you can call me by my alias; Cole Jameson, or just Cole."he said. His smile turned into another smirk, showing his perfectly formed, white teeth.

"Cole?"Shepard started as he let go of the man's hand. "I thought all of Kneffler's men had German names. And you speak with a German accent. Or was it the person that was cloned into you that had that name?"

Cole raised his eyebrows in surprise and his smile disappeared. "Clone?"He left the question in the air for a few seconds. His smile returned and he waved dismissively with his hand. "No, no, no, Commander. I am no clone. And neither are any of my brothers and sisters."

"Greeter Cole claims to be relative to a whole group of mercenaries by blood."Legion started from behind Shepard. "Yet the Juggernauts consist of nearly all races of different kinds of DNA. Natural creation of members is impossible if being relatives. Cloning most plausible way." A few moments passed, with Grunt staring at the geth as if he had not understood a word of what the machine had said. "Or is it some human expression that we do not understand?"Legion added.

Cole chuckled before speaking. "Partly correct, my robotic friend."he said. "But as I said, we are not clones."he turned around and looked at the trio over his shoulder. "Come with me. It will all be explained once we get there." He began pacing down the walkway that led from the ship and into the building, where a door hid in the shadows.

Shepard looked at his companions and shrugged. "I guess we're going with him."he said, then followed Cole towards the door. Grunt droned silently and Legion made a few stuttering sounds before following.

Shepard looked to his side as he walked across the bridge between the docks and the building, and saw the giant city bask in the midday sun before him. He felt a relief that he saw nothing that he could connect with his past on Earth.

"You really think we can trust these guys?"Shepard heard Grunt comment right behind him. He turned around and saw the krogan looking at him, clearly expecting an answer.

"If we want to get any information about Raven, we have no choice."the human responded. "I guess we'll have to play along and hope it goes well."

The rest of the trip through the building was silent. There was really nothing to talk about. Shepard looked around the rooms and hallways they passed through. Every corridor, every hall, everyone of them was empty, except small groups of Juggernaut soldiers here and there that seemed to block off the areas they passed through. They sure where expected.

They where eventually led out to a small platform that shot out of the wall like a balcony about twenty meters from the ground. The handrails at the edges where wobbly and didn't seem to have been inspected for years. In the middle of the platform stood a silver gray shuttle of similar model as those on the Normandy. A large white logo - consisting of a bear standing on it's hind legs inside a large circle – had been painted on the shuttle door.

Cole turned around right next to the door as it opened. "Hop in, gentlemen."he said as he gestured with his hand for them to step in.

* * *

The door opened and Tali found herself staring into the observation room where Nikhir was staying. But now the room was empty. A couple of empty bottles of liquor where lying on the bar counter, and one of them had rolled off and crashed into the floor. Tali took a few steps in and looked around. Except for the bottles and glasses that where spread around, there where no signs that the turian had even been there. The quarian took another step forward. She heard something crack under her boot. She lifted her foot and saw what was left of another glass lying on the floor. "Where has that woman gone to?"she asked herself out loud.

The woman suddenly heard a loud groan from her right. She turned her head and looked in the direction of origin. She saw another glass roll out from behind the bar counter. She sighed and walked over to the counter. As she had guessed, there on the floor lied Nikhir on her stomach. Tali walked around the counter and crouched down. She gave the turian a light shake on the shoulder. There was no reaction that showed that she was conscious. Tali flipped the woman onto her side, then onto her back. The turian gave a light grunt, but that was all.

Tali let out a deep sigh. Nikhir did say she had a drinking problem. "Right..."she started as she grabbed Nikhir's arm and attempted to lift her. "Lets get you in bed." She put her arms under Nikhir's armpits and lifted, leaving the woman's lower body dragging against the floor. The turian was heavier than she looked, but there was not much difficulty in dragging her over to Kasumi's old bed.

Tali stopped in front of the bed. She gathered her strength and lifted Nikhir up to the edge of the bed, before rolling her onto the mattress. Tali was in good shape and had enough strength in her body to qualify for any military. But a turian's scales made them heavy.

Tali sat down on the edge of the bed, letting out the breath she had held during her lifting. She turned to Nikhir – who was sleeping like nothing had happened – and opened her mouth to say something. But before she could utter a word, she saw a small medallion hanging in a thin chain around the turian's neck. The quarian threw a few unsure glances around, making sure no one was watching her, before carefully grabbing the medallion and lifting it towards her.

The chain was only long enough to stretch a few centimeters in front of the turian's chin, but it was enough. Tali noticed a small button-like bulge on the side of the object. She pressed it, and the medallion gave a light click before opening, revealing a photo that seemed quite old. The photo wasn't holographic or shown on a display – it was just a good old paper photo behind a thin screen of glass. But it still seemed to be a few years old. The photo showed a turian man from the waist up. Nikhir was hanging on his back with her arms around his neck. Both of them where wearing classical turian clothes with large collars. The turian woman seemed much younger on the photo, but the date on the lower edge showed 3rd of August 2179. _"It's just six years ago!"_Tali though to herself. She realized that the photo must have been from a time before the sorrow and pain had left their mark.

Tali studied the two turians' expressions. She was bad at turian faces, but she could see that they where smiling, or laughing. Judging by the pose, it seemed that Nikhir had pounced onto his back just as the camera shot the photo, ruining the original pose, only to replace it with a better one. The quarian took an extra look on the man. His scarred face showed that he had seen combat. Nikhir had said she was a mercenary a few years back, and another turian was in her team. There was a clear connection.

"Tali!"a voice was heard from outside the room, which made Tali immediately close the medallion, get up from the bed and walk towards the door. Just as she reached the door, it split opened and she suddenly saw Miranda looking at her.

"There you are."the human said with a smile. "Ken and Gabby miss you and wonder where you are."she teased. The woman looked over Tali's shoulder at Nikhir. "What's up with her?"

Tali turned around and gave the turian a quick glance. She turned back to Miranda. "Just had a little too much to drink. She'll get over it."she said in a fake cheerful tone. The ex-Cerberus agent shrugged and walked away, back towards her office. Tali turned back and looked at Nikhir again. _"But she's got other problems I'm more worried about..."_


	24. Chapter 23:Answers

**Well, here I am again. I was planning on waiting until the end of summer until I posted something new, but what the hell.**

Shepard raised his head and saw Cole looking at him with that smile that never seems to die. "Gentlemen...here we are."Cole said just as the shuttle came to a stop and the door opened, letting the bright daylight into the darkened space. The first one to get out was Cole, Shepard and Grunt raised their arm to protect their eyes from the intruding sunlight, while Legion just sat on his place.

Shepard stepped out of the shuttle, his eyes still unused to the light. It didn't help that the floor under his feet acted like a giant mirror with it's polished surface. Shepard raised his vision and saw a tower of glass stretching towards the sky, it's metal skeleton running like dull stripes among the sea of mirrors. At the top of the building – which seemed to be made of concrete instead of glass – was a large scale of the Juggernaut logo painted on the wall. A gunship flew over the roof, the distance making it seem more like a wasp.

Shepard returned his gaze in front of him. He stared down a long walkway that ran through a huge garden, with trees and bushes shaped like different kinds of animals on the sides. Everything was closed in by a high wall with guard posts put out here and there. Juggernaut mercenaries stood in long lines, with their rifles resting against their shoulders, along the edges of the walkway, which Shepard now noticed was made of light gray marble, not metal like he had expected. The purple and white armors started in front of them with clear details, but dissolved into a mess of colors as it neared the entrance of the tower. The whole scene seemed almost like a painting.

Cole turned around just as Legion and Grunt where getting out of the shuttle and looked at the trio. "Come with me, Commander."the man smirked. "Mr. Kneffler bids you welcome."

Shepard nodded. "Yeah, I noticed."he said silently to himself.

The three followed the man as they walked through the huge garden, the only sound coming from their boots hitting the marble floor. Shepard studied the mercenaries as he walked past them. Men and women from different species all stood lined up like statues with standard military Lancer rifles in their hands and against their shoulders. None of them seemed to move when he looked at them. Kneffler sure had trained them in discipline.

"Seems Kneffler wants to make a good first impression."Shepard said quietly as Legion and Grunt joined up next to him.

"Maybe he's just an asslicker."Grunt droned in response, and Shepard saw Cole glance over his shoulder and give the krogan an angry stare. The man quickly turned his head back and pretended like he hadn't heard anything, but Shepard found himself wondering if bringing Grunt was a good idea.

"Maybe you shouldn't give such comments, Grunt."Shepard whispered to the krogan. "You know, those that can get us killed."

Grunt gave the human a short stare. "Would be a good fight, at least."he snorted in response. "I'm not going to sit by and do nothing until I turn into a pile of shit, be clear on that."he added.

No one said anything else on their way through the garden. The mercenaries on both their sides never showed a sign of moving, and the air got silent. When they reached the door, two guards opened it for them just as the sky got darker and a few raindrops fell from the dark gray clouds above. It was an old-fashioned glass door that you opened manually. But the glass seemed to be like what Shepard remembered he had seen on the Lazarus station, where a missile only made a few cracks in it.

"Follow me, gentlemen."Cole said as he made his way up the few steps that led anonymously up to the door. You wouldn't really notice them unless you where looking at them.

The trio followed the man in and they found themselves in a large hall that seemed to be a reception, like they had just walked into some company building. Shepard looked around. The room was filled with different kinds of furniture in several places. Carved wooden chairs with red fabric cushions accompanied with sofas and tables of similar style. Pillars of ancient Greek style went halfway into the cream colored walls and seemed to serve as decoration more than keeping up the building's structure. The round room stretched far up and ended in a glass dome when it almost reached the ceiling, which was high enough to be expected in a large cathedral. The many colored pieces of glass together formed an image of the Juggernaut's white bear. And everything was reflected in the polished granite floor, completing the feeling of luxury.

"Please follow me."Cole said to them with a wave of his hand. They paced across the stone floor, and a woman with a large pair of glasses and a gray suit with a skirt that sat in the reception looked at them as they closed in. The woman ran her hand across her head where her blonde hair had been put up in a neat ponytail. She and Cole exchanged a few words in German before she pressed a button and they continued toward the back. Shepard saw a pair of elevators with gold plated doors appear from behind a corner. Cole pressed a button on the holographic elevator control panel. The doors soon opened and Cole cocked with his head to signal them to step in.

The elevator doors and Shepard stared into a long corridor with a much darker atmosphere than the lobby. Instead of the luxury look down there, this floor looked more like a military base, with metal doors sitting tightly between each other on each side of the corridor walls. Instead of splitting off in junctions, the hallway continued to a single room far ahead. Yet again, there was no way of knowing what was behind the countless doors.

Cole stepped out of the elevator and walked down the corridor, closely followed by the three protagonists. The hallway was quiet in an unsettling way. The place seemed dead except for a Juggernaut soldier who soon ran past to the door to what Shepard guessed was Kneffler's office. The man opened the door and stepped in; the door slammed shut with a wooden clap that echoed through the corridor. Kneffler seemed to have a taste for things from the past, and that door was no exception. But Shepard, Legion and Grunt with Cole in the front too reached the door soon. Cole held up the door, letting through the voices that had been blocked out earlier. Shepard stepped in and saw an overweight, bald man in a tie-less white suit with purple shirt sitting behind a large wooden desk with guards on both his sides shouting at the soldier that ran past them earlier in German while slamming his hand in the desk. He looked at the mercenary's side and silenced when he saw Shepard. His gaze pulled the eyes of everyone else onto the commander.

"Commander!"the large man, who was obviously the fabled Heinrich Kneffler, exclaimed, stretching out his arms. "I have been waiting for you."he remarked as one of the soldiers brought a chair that he placed in front of the desk. "Please..."Kneffler gestured at the chair. "Sit down."

Shepard paced across the floor over to the chair, walking past a few of the mercenaries that had gathered in the room. The commander established himself in the chair that turned out to be much more comfortable than it looked. A few seconds passed, yet no one said anything. Shepard's attention turned to the heavy rain that was visible outside through the glass that made the entire outer wall. The black clouds outside had darkened the sky, it might as well have been late afternoon.

A few more seconds passed, and Shepard realized that Kneffler was studying him. The bald man's fingers tapped against the desk and he didn't let his eyes off the commander. "Uh...Shepard..."Shepard heard Grunt drone silently from his right side. "Look to your left."he said. Shepard looked to his side and jerked back in his chair when he saw both Scorpio and Zeus staring at him from the left corner of the room. They where still in their armors but didn't carry their weapons. Still, one punch could surely take ones head off. His hand immediately went for the pistol in his belt by reflex, which made every mercenary in the room pull up their weapons and point them at the three.

"Stand down, men. Stand down."Kneffler laughed, and the soldiers lowered their guns again. Shepard lowered his arm, but he still held it ready to pull the pistol. "I know you have met with these two brothers before, Commander."the mercenary leader continued. "But don't worry – as long as I prefer you alive, they're gentle as teddy bears."

Shepard felt himself relax, if only slightly. "How cute..."he commented silently, not letting his eyes off the two armored giants. He remembered Liara mentioning that the Juggernaut soldiers couldn't hold a grudge, simply because they can't feel hate; they just do what they're told. But he still didn't trust the two one bit.

"Zeus, Scorpio..."Kneffler started when he noticed Shepard kept staring at the Juggernauts. "Wait outside."he told them silently. The two brothers looked at their leader for a few seconds before slowly stepping towards the door. Shepard heard the metal pieces in their armors grinding against one another as they walked past him and his squad. Grunt made a growl at Scorpio, but the Juggernaut ignored him.

When the doors behind them once again shut, Kneffler turned to the commander. "Your friend Liara T'Soni sent me a message a while ago."the large man stated. "It said you seek information about an old acquaintance of mine...Raven."Every soldier in the room looked at the man when he mentioned the name of the sniper.

Shepard nodded. "I met him a few weeks ago. In an ambush. Me and another squad member managed to escape his trap, but he killed another of my crew – Kasumi Goto. He also killed a whole battalion of Cerberus elite agents, all by himself." The commander took a breath. "To fight Raven, I need to know more about him, and..."

"And you heard I'm the one to turn to."Kneffler cut him off. He had leaned over the desk and rested his chin on the top of his hands while he listened to Shepard. He removed his hands and leaned back in his chair. "That is correct."He pushed a small joystick on the right armrest of his chair, making it turn to his right and roll to the side of the desk, showing his whole body. His legs where thin and atrophied after being unused for years, and they stuck out on his very overweight body.

Kneffler drove his wheelchair over to the glass wall on his right side and looked out over the tall skyscrapers of Berlin. "I know more than anyone when it comes to Raven. I should."He turned his head to Shepard and made a smile. "I created him."

Shepard raised his eyebrows in surprise. He hadn't expected something like that, but it made perfect sense now that the mercenary leader had said it. Where else would he come from. "Twenty years ago."Kneffler continued. He turned back his wheelchair and rolled back to his place behind the desk. "I mixed together the genes of most of the species in the galaxy to create the ultimate soldier."His gaze became empty as his mind wandered into daydreams. "A krogan's strength, a salarian's intelligence, the natural armor of the turian, the quarian's mechanical mind..."He made a deep sigh before continuing. "But it went horribly wrong. Instead of the super specimen I hoped for, I got a psychotic mass of twisted flesh."The man tied his hands together on top of his large stomach.

"But he proved to be quite effective..."Shepard commented, remembering how easily Raven had killed elite soldiers, and Kasumi.

Kneffler nodded. "Come, Commander. Let me give you a tour. You might understand better then."He said and pushed the joystick on his wheelchair, rolling away from the desk once again, past Shepard and towards the door. "Stay here, men."he ordered his soldiers. Shepard stood up from his chair and followed the man through the door, through the long corridor, his squad tight behind him.

They came to one of the metal doors that ran along the walls of the hallway. The door opened to an elevator, which they walked into. Kneffler pressed a button on the control panel and the elevator went down. Far down. It must have taken them deep underground. Eventually the elevator stopped, the doors opened and they found themselves looking into a small room with another door right in front of them.

Kneffler rolled over to a comm radio on the wall next to the door and pressed the button on it, activating it. "Hans, open the door."he ordered in German, and released the button. The door soon opened and Shepard found himself staring at a huge, muscular quarian without his enviro suit. Well over six feet, he seemed to be of similar kind to Scorpio and Zeus, only without armor. The quarian's dark purple skin, his white and purple uniform, as well as the short, black hair that covered his scalp were all moist with sweat, and Shepard felt why – the heat blew out of the room as soon as the door opened.

Kneffler turned his wheelchair around, facing the trio. "Gentlemen, this is Hans. He is a quarian, yes, you guessed right."He made a smile. "He too is a creation of mine. I gave him the immune system of a human, though, so he doesn't have to be trapped in a suit."he said proudly.

Shepard saw the quarian stare at Legion with anger in his silver eyes. He opened his mouth, showing his sharp fangs. "Ruhig, Hans."Kneffler told the quarian, and he shut his mouth again and kept quiet. He turned to Shepard. "He does not like geth very much, being quarian and all."he commented.

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "How can that be? Hate is not genetically transferable – how can he have anything particular against geth?"he asked.

Kneffler shrugged. "Don't know. It's probably just a coincidence, but he hates geth. Can't stand the things."He took a second too look up at the face of the quarian behind him before looking back at Shepard. "Well, Commander, shall we move then?"he asked with a clap of his hands. He turned around his chair and rolled into the hot room, Shepard, Grunt, and Legion following closely, while the quarian – who was for some reason named Hans – stayed behind.

They entered a great room with human-sized glass tanks filled with a green liquid of some sort filled the walls and went from the floor to the ceiling like a pillar, while men and women – who Shepard guessed where also creations of Kneffler – walked around in lab coats around the machines and panels, writing down data on a holopad or watching at lumps that floated around in a tank each and looked like they where made of flesh.

"This is Spawning Chamber A1. On this facility alone I have fifty chambers with one-hundred-and-fifty-two tanks each, each one of them home to a growing new soldier into my ranks."Kneffler explained with an ounce of pride showing in his voice.

Shepard too another look at the room and saw that the tanks stretched up all the way to the high ceiling with catwalks running by every third "story" of tanks. "So this is where you breed your clone army?"the man asked.

Kneffler made a laugh. "As I'm sure Cole would have told you if you asked him, they're not clones."he started. "Each one of them is made by a individual gene from the different species. That gene is put into these tanks together with a special little ingredient, and they'll grow into battle-ready soldiers in between two to three weeks, depending on which species it is."he explained. "You may not notice it right now, but this chamber is full of growing krogan."he said, and a silent droning was heard from Grunt.

"What about your big guys?"Grunt asked. "Aren't they made here?"

"No."Kneffler replied. "My heavy shock troopers – like Scorpio and Zeus – are made on special facilities out in space, of which positions only I and the staff there knows."

"And why that seclusion?"Shepard asked. "Don't they fit in the tanks here?"

"They are not bred in tanks."Kneffler explained. "They are grown in their own armors. They don't have the normal form of regular soldiers. If you would remove their armor, you would find a white lump of flesh with a pair of eyes. And since they are literally attached to their armors, they would die if you removed it."

"Judging from description, we assume the subject named Hans is not one of the mentioned shock troopers."Legion commented.

"Correct."Kneffler responded. "He simply grew big in his tank."

"Why are you telling us this, Kneffler?"Shepard asked. "And what has this to do with Raven?"

Kneffler looked at the commander for a moment before speaking. "This is where Raven was born. In Chamber K 3, further into the base. Since he was a failure, I was planning on putting him down. However, he would not let that happen."he said, then pulled down the collar on his suit, showing four dark scars on his neck, something that seemed to have been made by claws. "Not only did I stand in his way on his way out, he believed I had betrayed him."He knocked with a finger on the armrest on his wheelchair. "He put me in this chair with a boot to my spine as punishment, but my guards managed to get me out of here before he managed to kill me." He looked around the room, which had lost all traces of what happened those years ago. "I released all my current experiments here, as well as most of the guards I had at the time, all to kill him. He killed them all with his bare hands and escaped the base. And he has been trying to finish the job since then."

Shepard looked at the mercenary leader. "I'm guessing he won't be easy to take down."he remarked. "But what I need to know is any weaknesses of his. That gasmask, for example. Why do he always use that?"

"I'm getting to it."Kneffler explained. "Just listen."He began rolling forwards again, taking the squad further into the base. Kneffler didn't begin speaking again until they walked through a large door and came into another chamber, where a large sign on the wall said "A 2"

"Back when I created Raven, I was foolish and didn't understand how the gene technology fully worked. I thought that if you mixed genes from different species, they would mix and filter out the negative features. But you can not mix genes like that, I know that now. Too great genetic diversity. I gave Raven a volus gene for example in hope it would make him more resistant to stronger gravity. Instead, he got the lungs of a volus; he can only breath the same poisonous gas volus breath. That's why he wears the mask. Oxygen would kill him."

Shepard scratched his cheek, where the stubble was once again showing up. "So if we remove the mask, he will choke to death."he muttered. "Now it's just a matter of getting it off him."

"And there is another thing..."Kneffler added. "I don't know if it will help, but he has serious problems with his nervous system. He has to inject a special liquid every day or he will get serious spasms and he may harm himself. And..."He raised a finger. " A word of warning, Commander."he said while turning his chair around and looking at the man. "Raven have never in his life failed to kill someone before. You and your companion are the first. He will hunt you to the end of the galaxy, be sure on that."

Shepard took a moment to think. "Where does he get this liquid?"he asked. "He must have a supplier, or is he able to create it himself."

"He has a supplier."Kneffler responded with a nod of his head. "I don't know who it is, but I know someone who knows. I have been looking for her for a while, but I can't find her. Perhaps you will have better luck."

Shepard crossed his arms. "Who is she?"he asked.

Kneffler tied together his fingers. "She is a turian mercenary who is said to be holding out somewhere in the Terminus. Veilon is her name. Nikhir Veilon."


End file.
